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April, 2012

OBAMA MAY ALREADY KNOW HOW THE SUPREMES VOTED ...
MORE BLACKS KILLING BLACKS ...
RON PAUL'S PROFLIGACY


The Supreme Court has already voted on the Obamacare case. Now they will spend weeks -- or months -- agreeing upon the wording of both the decision and the dissenting view. But, as is pointed out by Hank, a reader of this column, it may be possible to determine the outcome well before the public announcement is made simply by noticing how Obama discusses his health plan. It is certainly possible -- even likely -- that one of his appointed liberals on the court will leak to him the outcome of the vote well before we get the official word. Probably he knows even now. Already his emphasis has shifted to, "It was all Mitt Romney's idea," which carries just enough weight to effectively disarm the likely Republican nominee on that issue in the forthcoming campaign.

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Mark Steyn (National Review Online) contemplates the power of just one Supreme Court justice ...
     "Since the retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor, Swingin’ Anthony Kennedy has been the swingingest swinger on the Supreme Court, the big Numero Cinco on all those 5–4 white-knuckle nail-biting final scores. So naturally Court observers have been paying close attention to his interventions in the Obamacare oral arguments. So far he doesn’t sound terribly persuaded by the administration’s line.
     "And yet, and yet . . .  If you incline to the view that Obamacare is a transformative act, isn’t there something slightly pitiful about the fact that the liberties of over 300 million people hinge on the somewhat whimsical leanings of just one man?"

Yes.

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Wonder what Al Sharpton will have to say about this latest black-on-black shooting?
     Gunmen fired a barrage of bullets at a crowd of mourners who were gathered Friday night at a North Miami-area funeral home, injuring 12 people and killing two, according to Miami-Dade police.
      An argument among gang members sparked the shooting.
     Witnesses said one of the two killed was shot in the chest.
     The funeral was for Morvin Andre, 21, of North Miami, killed in a March 18 shooting, according to witnesses.

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Seven black teens have been arrested on suspicion that they committed a hate crime when they attacked a 15-year-old Hispanic boy while he was walking home from school.
     The March 14 beating in Palmdale was captured on video and posted on YouTube, but has since been removed from the site. The video shows as many as 10 boys surrounding the victim and challenging him to a fight. The suspects then began hitting the teen while others watched.
     After the victim fell to the ground, the assailants kicked him multiple times in the head and knocked out several teeth, requiring surgery.
     Comment, Al? Jesse? Barack? ... I didn't think so ...

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Rich Lowry of National Review runs the numbers and puts the Trayvon MIller death into perspective ...
     "According to a 2005 FBI report, blacks accounted for 13 percent of the population and 49 percent of all homicide victims. In 93 percent of the cases, the killer was black. Half of the victims were ages 17 to 29.
     "That works out to 4,000 murders of young blacks in one year, overwhelmingly at the hands of other blacks. In the communities where these killings occur there is, to put it in (Jesse) Jackson’s inimitable terms, no justice and no peace.
     "In America, the lives of young black people are cheap, unless they happen to fit the right agenda."

- - - - -

Obama's "flexibility" message to Russia's Putin can be reduced to one word: Obsequiousness. In fact, that defines his entire foreign policy, if his incessant bungling and treachery can be dignified by the word "policy."
     Future history books, if they aren't eviscerated by liberal "scholars," will place his picture alongside that of the contemptible Neville Chamberlain, who was quite willing to sell-out Britain to Adolf Hitler.

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Larry Kudlow of CNBC with an unclouded view of the reality Obama ignores ...
     "Make no mistake about it: Fossil fuel is going to drive the American economy for decades to come. Green energy is not."

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Who's done the most wasteful, inefficient campaign spending? Major Garrett of National Journal checks out the numbers ...
     "The (Ron) Paul math goes like this: According to his latest filing with the Federal Election Commission, Paul has spent $32,766,465. He's received 1,079,753 votes for a cost-per-vote total of $30.35. He's won 66 delegates for a cost-per-delegate total of $496,461."

Almost a half-million dollars per delegate!

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Sometimes the liberal media's lies and stupidity are so evident, it's laughable.
     Obviously anticipating Obama's impending butt-kicking by the Supreme Court over his socialized medicine scam, many of his media stooges are now trying to peddle the argument that a loss would be a good thing for him, obviously overlooking the fact that polls consistently show that about two Americans out of three think his plan was awful.

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It's getting nastier and nastier between goofy Keith Olbermann and Al Gore's tin-can cable network, which has fired the Big Ego. One source close to the dispute tells Mediaite that Olbermann went through 8 different car services (he doesn’t drive), and complained to the network that some of the drivers “smelled,” and -- heaven forfend! -- actually “talked to him.”

Now that Olbermann's been fired by Gore's TV operation (talk about a marriage made in heaven!) look for the next loony lib to get the axe to be Soledad O'Brien, whose ratings on CNN are a train-wreck. Her liberal goofiness had a market in San Francisco, the world's largest outdoor lunatic asylum. But not in the real world.

There is a difference between ignorance (not having knowledge) and stupidity (not knowing how to use knowledge one has).  Ms. O'Brien is one of many media liberals who possesses both traits.

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Now that it's out that Osama bin Laden lived in five different "safe houses" in Pakistan in the years after he fled Afghanistan, just how stupid would even a U.S. diplomat -- or president -- have to be not to know that the treacherous Pakistani government knew of his presence all along?
     The first requirement for dealing with one's enemies is to identify them.

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More distressing news for the cruise industry. After 24 hours dead in the waters off the Philippines, the Azamara Quest, is now limping toward Malaysia for repairs. An engine-room fire had disabled the vessel. Azamara is the top-of-the-line brand in the group of cruise lines owned by Royal Caribbean. RCCL and Carnival own most of the world's major cruise lines.

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We should be used to it by now. Some Kentucky basketball fans overturned cars and set fires near the U.K. campus last night after the Wildcats beat Louisville in the Final Four. Unless I missed something in the team introductions, the closest hometown of any starting Kentucky player was in Indiana. Others came from New York, Chicago and Oregon.
     Yessir, nothing like pride in those home-state kids!
     But so it goes in the world of professional sports disguised as a college game.

And the Wildcats do run a beautiful alley-oop with Anthony Davis.

- - - - -

Another shameful chapter in the saga of Ryan Leaf, the biggest flop in the history of the NFL draft.
Back in his Montana hometown, Great Falls, for a book-signing, he was arrested on charges of burglary, theft and criminal possession of drugs.

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Wise-up a friend who might be tilting leftward. Send that poor, confused person the link to this column. Or forward the entire column. Someday they'll thank you for it. Perhaps not immediately, however.

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Petty irritation department ...
     Everyone has a perfect right to spell his/her name however they wish. If your name is Ann and you choose to spell it RTX, no one can say you're wrong.  Nevertheless ...
     If any SHAWN'S parents wanted to give him an Irish name, it might've been better if they'd spelled it the original way, SEAN.
     Have a sip of Bushmills and consider it.  (It goes great on cereal, also.)

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Lynne Cahill-Gomez, 53, of Hayward, Calif., may be a slow learner, but she does learn. She's also a fast driver. Within one hour, she was pulled over for speeding three times. The first time she was doing 103MPH ... the second time 105 ... but by the third time she'd slowed down to 76. See? She DOES learn.

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Please don't ask me to join a "social network" on the internet. Privacy is hard enough to maintain, as it is.

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Mr. Eason, obviously a dedicated feminist,  forwards yet another example of a woman's view  on why men are just no good. The lady writes ...
     One day my housework-challenged husband decided to wash his Sweatshirt.  Seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to me, 'What setting do I use on the washing machine?'
     'It depends,' I replied.  'What does it say on your shirt?'
     He yelled back, ' OHIO STATE !'
And they say blondes are dumb....

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My old friend Bob passes along some eye-opening stats that should be shown to children and grandchildren. The year is 1911 --- One hundred years ago. Here are some statistics from that year:

The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.
Fuel for a car was sold in drug stores only.
Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads in the entire nation.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
The average US wage in 1910 was 22 cents per hour.
The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births took place at home.
Ninety percent of all Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION. Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard".
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
The population of Las Vegas was 30.
Crossword puzzles, canned beer and iced tea hadn't been invented yet.
Pharmacists said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health!"
There were about 230 reported murders in the entire nation.

Consider two elements in that list. First, the average worker made between $200 and $400 a year. Secondly, there were only about 230 murders in the whole year. Show this to some deluded liberal who thinks poverty is at the root of crime and senseless killing.

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Conan O'Brien --
     "Charlie Sheen says he cringes when he watches footage of his crazy rant from last year. He's moved on. He's now focusing on his career as a JetBlue pilot."

- - - - -

Jimmy Kimmel --
     "For the first time in history, Americans will watch more movies online than they will on physical media like DVDs. In 10 years people will be looking back on us renting movies at Blockbuster like we look back at people washing their clothes on a river rock."
ECONOMY STILL OBAMA'S ACHILLES HEEL ...
HIS SUPPORT LAGGING ...
TAXES KILLING JOBS

What is the acknowledged biggest issue in the presidential campaign? No, not "free" birth control.  The economy, of course. So this may be the most significant ongoing public opinion poll:
      Survey (Rasmussen) says ... forty-nine percent (49%) of Likely U.S. Voters now trust the GOP with economic issues, while 38% trust the Democrats more.

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It is amusing to see liberals who've always favored an "activist" Supreme Court now lamenting the prospect of the court killing Obamacare. They wail, "Shouldn't the court ignore the constitution and give the Democrat Congress (that passed this revolting bill) the final word?"
     One of the most contemptible of the liberal media cohort is E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post. I still recall my first and only encounter with him. It occurred at the 1992 Republican convention at the Astrodome in Houston which nominated Bush Sr. for a second term. My on-air co-host for the broadcast coverage was the late Dwayne Garrett, a Democrat -- and good guy -- who was acquainted with Dionne and wanted to invite him as a guest. After about two minutes of conversation I recall thinking to myself, "Who is this obnoxious little SOB, anyway?"
     My initial impression survives.

- - - - -

The insightful Charlie Cook of National Journal examines Obama's 2008 support ...
     "Independent voters (29 percent of the vote) chose Obama over McCain by 8 percentage points, 52 percent to 44 percent. Young voters, ages 18-29 (18 percent of vote) broke for Obama by 34 percentage points, 66 percent to 32 percent. Latinos (9 percent) favored Obama by 36 points, 67 percent to 31 percent. And, finally, African-Americans (18 percent) backed Obama by 91 percentage points, 95 percent to 4 percent."

Mr. Cook surmises, as do I, that Obama's area of vulnerability is probably greatest among the young (and gullible) voters who went for him to heavily four years ago. For one thing, their evident lowering of enthusiasm this year doubtless springs from a belated realization of the enormous gap between Obama words and deeds. Secondly, that demographic has been hardest-hit by a sagging economy and its accompanying unemployment. Some are evidently realizing the truth of the ancient wisdom: "Some people grow up ... others only grow old."

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Wave that big foam hand seen at ballgames! You know -- the one with the finger that proclaims "We're number one!"
     Because we are. In corporate taxes. Highest rate in the world, now that Japan has reduced its business taxes.
     Now use that same hand to wave goodbye to more businesses moving overseas.
     Democrats now want to tax all profits of American corporations that are earned by their overseas operations. Just (bleeping) brilliant!
     The obvious response would be to move the entire business, headquarters and all, to a foreign country and tell Bro' Barack to shove it.

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Unless Rick Santorum can pull off a surprise upset or at least a very competitive result in tomorrow's Wisconsin primary, it's time for him to retire from the political battlefield, lick his wounds and perhaps consider another run four or eight years down the line.
     His increasing pettiness has probably already compromised even that prospect. He's becoming the personification of the sour-grapes poor loser, which does not bode well for future fund-raising or team-building.

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Have we yet had enough of the bull(bleep) about the "Republican establishment FORCING Romney on us?" It's far past time for the disgruntled losers to grow up and accept the fact that NOBODY forced ANYBODY to vote for Romney. Nobody. He's gotten -- by far -- the most votes. So it's time for this childish nonsense to stop. It makes the purveryors sound like whiny adolescents.
     Even if one doesn't have great expectations where Romney's concerned, the priority is to remove from office the greatest domestic threat this nation has endured since the Civil War.

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The liberal Washington Post laments the unveiling of another questionable Obama contributor/fundraiser. It seems a New York woman named Abake Assongba contributed $50,000 to the Obama campaign fund. It turns out she stands accused in court of fraud to the tune of $657,000, evading creditors and impersonating a bank official.
     Other than that, she's said to be a wonderful human being.

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Nobody asked, but ...
   St-Viateur bagels in Montreal are the best in the world. Trust me on this.

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Herewith, a condensed version of a useful list put together by John Hawkins (Townhall.com); a list of the advantages of being a liberal ...
     If you're a politician, no matter how dumb you are or how poor your decision-making is, the press will still never question your intelligence.
     You can claim to personally speak for everyone in your gender or racial group, like you're their leader, and the press will take you seriously.
     You can leave a woman to die at the bottom of a tidal pool, use crack, or have a gay prostitution ring run out of your apartment and other liberals will STILL vote for you.
     You can suggest that black Americans are too incompetent to handle something as simple as getting a photo ID without being called racist.
     You can use capitalism to make huge piles of money and then turn right around and score brownie points with your fellow liberals by ripping an economic system that made it possible for you to actually become filthy rich writing, making music, or acting for a living.
    You can be a white man who calls himself the first black President without getting in trouble with Al Sharpton and be a serial adulterer who even cheats with an intern without getting in trouble with NOW.
     You can disregard the Bible, ignore slurs aimed at Christianity, and mock people who take their religious beliefs seriously and still consider yourself to be a Christian.
     You can be perfectly fine with cheating on your own taxes while you call other people "greedy" for not wanting to pay higher taxes themselves.
    If you're a minority, you can actually hold a prominent media job centered around regularly accusing other people of being racists.
     You can ride around in an SUV, fly on a private jet, and have a mansion while you lecture other people about the importance of having a small environmental footprint and other liberals won't have a problem with it at all.
     (That last one is for you, Mr. Gore)

- - - - -

Conan O'Brien --
     "A Massachusetts medical clinic is trying to entice men to get a vasectomy by offering a free pizza. The disturbing part is for both the pizza and the vasectomy, they use the same rolling wheel knife."

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Prepare to shed a tear over this touching tale ...
     As she sat by him, he whispered, eyes full of tears, "You know what? You have been with me all through the bad times. When I got fired, you were there to support me. When my business failed, you were there. When I got shot, you were by my side. When we lost the house, you stayed right here. When my health started failing, you were still by my side. You know what Martha?"
      "What dear?" she gently asked, smiling as her heart  filled with warmth.
      "I'm beginning to think you're bad luck."


OBAMA'S CONTEMPT OF COURT ...
PRESIDENTIAL POLITICAL PREVARICATIONS ...
ABC & NBC IN "SHOWDOWN AT CREDIBILITY GAP"

Obama has clearly begun a politically-motivated attack on the Supreme Court, which may be taken as an indication that he already knows his socialized medicine plan is doomed.
     His reference to an "unelected" Supreme Court is especially demagogic, since he knows very well that is precisely the point of having the court. It was intended to be made up of judges nominated by a president and confirmed by the Senate so as to be better insulated from the shifting winds of voter opinion. He IS, beyond question, a power-mad demagogue.

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Furthermore ...
     Obama's assertion that the overturning of Obamacare legislation on constitutional grounds would be "unprecedented" is yet another outright lie. It's been done many times. That is a primary purpose for constitutional law; making sure that politicians cannot violate the fundamental principles upon which the nation was founded.

- - - - -

Unless a fundamental law of economics has somehow vanished, supply and demand DO dictate prices. Therefore, for Obama to insist there is no relationship between the supply of oil and the price of gasoline proves one of two things: Either he is hopelessly stupid ... or he's convinced that the voters are.
     Considering that they elected this fraud to the White House, he has good reason to believe the latter is true.

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Some in the Big Media seem to be fearing a public backlash against their blatantly deceptive reporting. A cynic might even call it outright lying. This refers to the Trayvon Martin case, in which ABC News now seems to have found in its own video coverage what others spotted immediately. Now ABC says further examination of the video of George Zimmerman, the shooter, DOES reveal what appear to gashes on the back of his head. This would lend further credence to his claim that Martin attacked him.
     NBC News has an internal investigation going on over it's editing of audiotape of Zimmerman's conversation with a police dispatcher in which he was first reported to be saying of Trayvon Martin, whom he was watching, simply that "he's black," editing out the fact that the dispatcher had pointedly ASKED him if the suspicious prowler was white, Latino or black. To which is answered, "He's black."
     Then there was Sunday's blatant suck-up by old liberal mouthpiece Bob Schieffer on CBS, interviewing Joe Biden.
     Anyone who accepts at face value any "news" reported by the Old Media is a gullible fool.

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Van Jones, the ultra-leftist who was briefly one of Obama's "czars" until forced out, was doubtless correct when he told Obama propaganda outlet MSNBC that the President couldn't lose the black vote "even if he came out as gay."

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Burt Prelutsky identifies some issues in which Obama has shown no interest ...
     "Rep. Laura Richardson, a black congresswoman from California, who is already being investigated by the House Ethics Committee for various violations, has now been accused by a former aide of treating her and other staff members like chattel.
     "This comes after Sheila Jackson Lee was voted the most obnoxious member of Congress by congressional staffers; Charles Rangel was found guilty of 11 infractions by a House committee; Maxine Waters is under investigation for questionable financial dealings; and Rep. Hank Johnson made America cackle by worrying during a House hearing whether the island might tip over if too many sailors and their families were relocated to Guam.
     "It’s not white America that has set back race relations; it’s Obama, (Attorney General Eric) Holder and the corrupt and ignorant dingbat members of the Black Congressional Caucus. It’s they, along with race baiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who consistently ignore black crime and the black illegitimacy rate while berating whites for alleged grievances."

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Ahead of the Obamacare case before the Supreme Court, "Going into oral arguments, the White House believed that the case for Obamacare was a 'slam dunk' and that they would win 7-2, maybe even 9-0. It's just the latest example of Obama's arrogance crippling his effectiveness as president."
      That's Conn Carroll of the Washington Examiner, who further reminds us of the impenetrable arrogance of Obama ...
     "If you want to know why the Obama administration failed so spectacularly to defend Obamacare in the Supreme Court last week, look no further than a 2008 statement President Obama gave to author Richard Wolfe: 'You know, I believe my own bulls--t.'"

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It's said that an honest politician is one who, once he's bought, stays bought.
     Barack Obama fails even that standard. The liberal POLITICO website reports that the single largest recipient of campaign money from giant oil company British Petroleum (BP) over the past twenty years is the industry's major antagonist ... Barack Obama. More than $77,000.
     Jesse Unruh, once the most powerful politician in California, was quoted in 1961 as author of the politician's creed: "If you can’t take their money, drink their whiskey, screw their women, and vote against ‘em anyway, you don’t belong in the Legislature.” Ol' Jesse would doubtless applaud our Maximum Leader.

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Re the repeated references to Barack Obama as having been a "law professor": he ... was ... not.  He lectured, but did not have professor status.
     The fact that a man who is either ignorant or contemptuous of the basis for the Supreme Court even was allowed to lecture at the University of Chicago Law School reflects poorly upon that august institution.
     Being a lecturer is not such a big deal, anyway. I used to lecture at Kansas University and was even a guest lecturer at Notre Dame, which suggests it is an honor not held in high regard.  (I sobbed softly over the KU loss to Kentucky last night.)

- - - - -

"Last week, Donald Verilli and George Zimmerman learned officially that they have become dispensable people.  Both men exhibit more than a qualifying level of characteristics that should place them solidly in the ranks of protected classes, but nevertheless, a confused and panicked Legacy Media has decided that they must be sacrificed.  The twin gods --Victory for Obama and All His Works and Socio/Cultural Orthodoxies That Sustain Progressive Policies -- are disturbed and demand propitiation." -- James Capua on The American Thinker website. Today's "must" reading.

- - - - -

"Five years ago this coming Wednesday, House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi defied President Bush’s request and his strategy isolating Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad by going to Damascus. Pelosi would have none of that. She had known evil and to her, he resided in the White House. The Syrian dictator, however, was a reforming, Western educated eye doctor. Bilateral problems might be real, but they might be resolved through dialogue. 'We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace,' she told reporters." -- Michael Rubin, Commentary.
     "Still Crazy After all These Years" -- Paul Simon.

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I wouldn't subscribe to a blanket accusation that Argentinians are, as a group, stupid people. Nevertheless, their political history lends credence to the theory that most are. Now it's madwoman President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner who, perhaps feeling a slippage of power, is taking the demagogue route in trying to distract the citizens by making boasts about taking the Falkland Islands from the British who've lived there since the earliest settlements in the 1700's.
     Perhaps someone should remind this would-be Evita that her predecessors in office tried an invasion of the Falklands thirty years ago and got their asses thoroughly kicked by a small British military force dispatched by Margaret Thatcher.

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Those Las Vegas oddsmakers hit it pretty close again. Last I heard, they had Kentucky favored by 6 1/2 points. They beat Kansas by eight.
     Basketball point spreads are notoriously tough to calculate. A few hit-or-missed free throws by the leading team in the last minute can drastically alter the outcome.

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Who's surprised? Helen Thomas, the ancient anti-Semitic crone who for years got the front-row-center seat at presidential press conferences, has been given a "journalism" award by the PLO -- Palestine Liberation Organization.

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How far back does -- or can -- a person's memory go?
     Long ago I astonished my mother and father by remembering, in detail, the house in which we lived when I was born. Even described crawling outside to meet my father, coming home from work across a little foot-bridge. We moved out of that small house when I was six months old and I never saw it again. Is that unusual?

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Just for fun, some quaint names of actual towns, compiled by Smarter Travel ...
    Tightwad, Missouri
    No Name, Colorado
    Hell, Cayman Islands (been there!)  
    Chicken, Alaska
    Rabbit Hash, Kentucky
    Middelfart, Denmark
... and everybody's favorite ...
    Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Wales

- - - - -

From Sharon, this heartwarming story ...
     Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business. When he found out he would inherit a fortune upon the death of his aging father, he decided he needed to find a wife with whom to share his fortune.
      One evening, at an investment meeting, he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her beauty took his breath away.
     "I may look like just an ordinary guy," he said to her, "But in just a few years my father will die and I will inherit $200 million".
     Impressed, the woman asked for his business card.
     Three days later, she became his stepmother.


MITT'S MOMENTUM, SANTORUM SINKING ...
TRAYVON A TOOL FOR THE GUN-GRABBERS ...
"UNPRECEDENTED" FOOLISHNESS FROM OBAMA

A clean sweep for Romney in all three of yesterday's primaries. Rick, give it up; you're embarrassing yourself.

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The gun-grabbing demagogues of the left are using the Trayvon Martin case to try -- yet again -- to undermine firearm ownership rights. To cut thru the fog of deceit, let's be clear: The Florida law simply says that “a person is justified in the use of deadly force if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.”
     Ask yourself if it really makes sense to deprive people of that legal right. Notice that the highest-ranking liberals who want to do so -- Obama, Clinton, et al -- are people who go everywhere protected by bodyguards who DO have guns.

- - - - -

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial response to Obama's remarks about an overturn of his socialized medicine legislation as being "unprecedented" ...
     "The Supreme Court has invalidated part or all of countless laws on grounds that they violated the Constitution. All of those laws were passed by a 'democratically elected' legislature of some kind.
     "Mr. Obama's remarks suggest he is joining others on the left in warning the Justices that they will pay a political price if they dare to overturn even part of the law. As he runs for re-election, Mr. Obama's inner community organizer seems to be winning out over the law professor."
     (Footnote: he was never a professor, only a lecturer.)

- - - - -

Thomas Sowell adds his voice (Townhall.com) to the chorus of rational people who are contemptuous of Obama and his statement about "unprecedented" action by the Supreme Court if they overturn his socialized medical plan. In fact, the court has been overturning unconstitutional laws passed by Congress for over 200 years ...
     "On this and on many other issues, you would have to know what the facts are to know that he is lying. He is obviously counting on the fact that, in this era of dumbed-down education, many people have no clue as to what the facts are.
     "He is also counting on something else -- namely, that the pro-Obama media will not expose his lies."
     "It would be hard to become nostalgic about Richard Nixon, who was forced to resign in disgrace. But at least you could tell when he was lying. Obama's lies are just as big but not as visible, and the media that exposed Nixon is covering for Obama."

- - - - -

My astute friend Richard (not Nixon) offers this ...
     "With all of Obama's critical remarks about what the Supreme Court may say and the repercussions to them if they decide one way or the other on the ObamaCare legislation I think something needs to be said.  I would like to see someone raise this point.  How can we expect perfection from legislators content to vote on a very important issue before having read that law?  Screecher Pelosi is on record as saying 'we can read it AFTER we vote on it.'  
     "I'd like to see a new Congressional majority issue articles of impeachment against Obama. if he ignores the Supreme Court.  I'd take Joe Biden in a second over Obama.  I don't think Joe could start a drunken brawl inside a brewery if he tried.  That ineptness could work to our advantage."

- - - - -

Re Obama's now-continual claims that he has expanded oil production: Again, he's a liar. The evidence to the contrary is abundant.

- - - - -

Just how much more of this ... male bovine excrement ... about "alternative energy" are Americans supposed to tolerate from the fool in the White House? Another of his idiotic pet projects has just bitten the dust. An outfit called Solar Trust for America, based in California, got $2.1 billion in conditional loan guarantees  from the Department of Energy. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, serious competitor for "Dumbest Cabinet Member" called it  "the largest amount ever offered to a solar project." Now it's bankrupt. Another stupid Obama scheme down the drain, taking taxpayer dollars with it.

- - - - -

Know any suckers who still believe "wind energy" is the answer? Show them the report from the Reno Gazette-Journal revealing that one turbine that cost the city $21,000 to install saved the city $4 on its energy bill. Overall, $416,000 worth of turbines have netted the city $2,800 in energy savings.
     And this kind of nonsense is the Obama answer to the need for "alternative" sources.

- - - - -

Just for the record, here's what the Big Screwup in the White House has done to our relations with major (and nearby) oil source, Canada. By killing the pipeline project, he's not only caused our neighbor to the north to sell much of its oil to China, henceforth the price we pay for Canada's oil will be higher. The "good neighbor" discount we've gotten in the past ... gone, thanks to Obama.

- - - - -  

Wes Pruden of the Washington Times has an explanation of what Russia's Vladimir Putin expects from Obama's
"flexibility" ...
     "The concession Vladimir Putin really wants – the concession that President Obama thinks must wait until after the November election – is the dismantling of the (U.S.) nuclear missile shield."
 
- - - - -

Chas. Gasparino of Fox Business Network explains why businesspeople are disillusioned with Obama ...
     "This president, with his years in academia and community organizing, has a thin (resume) when it comes to the economy, and the people who advise him on economic matters aren’t much better.
     "As one top business executive who deals with Obama’s economic team put it recently: 'As far as the people who work for the president, dealing with his economic team is like dealing with college students. Their level of naivete is off the charts.'"

- - - - -

Today's recommended reading ... The American Thinker website ... "Musings of a College Instructor" ... by Eileen Toplansky ... from which comes this student submission on "Green Power" in California. Good luck trying to decipher it ...
     "Why don't I agree with their reason well yes they are in debit and therefore there is a need in saving money but there is other ways.  For insists in this solar panel really saving money or it just bring down the coast of utilities bills?  Well in the reading "In order to start this solar panel system we need land and not just feet but acres according to California's law that was now mandated 78,490 acres was needed" Now think about it is it free? What was on the land before?  Will this really save us from the economical crisis or will it just cause a economical downfall?
     "[The author] asserts that the places where the solar panel generators were being put on not just in empty space but are being put on "farms, parks and etc".  So indeed it is not only bringing our bills lower but bringing up a cost for these generators.  Why should we destroy agriculture and farms were most of our veggies and fruits grow just because the state mandates.  Isn't it still bringing the economy to spend money because of the acres being bought?"

Your taxpayer dollars at work in America's "higher education" system ...

- - - - -

Media note ...
Sarah Palin on "Today" beat Katie Couric on "Good Morning, America" by more than a half-million viewers.

- - - - -

Distressing news from Florida, where a hooker offered to have sex with an undercover detective in exchange for two McDonald's cheeseburgers. Sad.
     Now, if it'd been Wendy's ...

- - - - -

Booth R. Myers, PhD, physicist, has worked out a plan for Sandra Fluke, the 30-year-old Georgetown U. student who's concerned about not getting free birth control ...
     "Ms. Fluke's expense account for birth control (aka sexual entertainment) was claimed to be $3000 for three years at law school. Let's presume that as an educated woman she wants to be doubly safe and uses both birth control pills to prevent pregnancy and condoms to prevent STD (sexually transmitted disease). Using the Wal-Mart cost for birth control pills of $9 per month, her birth control pills will cost her $324 for her entire law school career. This leaves only $2676 for her condoms.
     "I went to Amazon.com, and found quality condoms available for 33 cents each in packages of 60 condoms each. Since she has $2676 for her 33 cent condoms, she will be buying 8109 condoms during her law school "career"and would have sex 7 times a day. This number presumes that she has sex ten times a day on Sundays when she has more free time.
     "Having worked through these numbers, I have some suggestions for Ms. Fluke to help her work through her crisis:
     1. Find dates who are gentlemanly enough to either provide their own condoms, or at least split the cost with her.
     2. Spend more time studying. Even seven "quickies" a day will seriously cut into quality study time.
     3. Seek funding from the EPA from one of their Wetlands Protection programs."
Just trying to help out a starving student. By the way, the average starting salary of new Georgetown Law School graduates is $160,000 a year, FYI."
     -- (Thanks, Dan) --

- - - - -

Baseball season is upon us. Love the game, but the old 154-game season was plenty long enough. Wake me in September when it gets interesting.

- - - - -

A final footnote to the NCAA men's final ...
     As a sports fan, I've many times heard the national anthem mangled by alleged "singers". NASCAR is the worst offender. But never have I heard such a wretched performance as was inflicted upon the audience Monday night.
     Before the Baylor blowout of Notre Dame in the women's finale in Denver last night they had a much better performance by the Air Force Academy chorus.

- - - - -

The crime report ...
     Cattle rustling in the Old West ain't what it used to be.
     New Mexico cops busted three guys who had grabbed a 220-pound calf off a ranch and stuffed it into the back seat of a Honda Civic.

- - - - -

When I included Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Wales, in yesterday's list of towns with funny names, Len the haiku-man immortalized it thusly according to the rules of the art form: first line five syllables, second line seven, then five again  ...
      Llanfairpwllgwyn
      gyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllan
      tysiliogogogoch, Wales.

- - - - -

“When the chips are down, the buffalo is empty.” -- quoted by Cindy Adams, NY Post.

- - - - -

Jimmy Kimmel --
     "The Mega Millions jackpot added up to a record $656 million. Three people correctly picked all six numbers. Now the plan is to throw them into a pit of some kind and have them fight to the death.
     The winning tickets were sold in Illinois, Kansas, and Maryland. All we know is their first names are Khloe, Kourtney, and Kim."

- - - - -

Dr. Bud reminds us ... what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive ...
      "DO YOU BELIEVE IN LIFE AFTER DEATH?" THE BOSS ASKED ONE OF HIS EMPLOYEES.
      "YES, SIR," THE NEW EMPLOYEE REPLIED.
      "WELL, THEN, THAT MAKES EVERYTHING JUST FINE," THE BOSS WENT ON.  "AFTER YOU LEFT EARLY YESTERDAY TO GO TO YOUR GRANDMOTHER'S FUNERAL, SHE STOPPED IN TO SEE YOU."
SANTORUM'S SINKING SPELL ...
"UNPRECEDENTED" BACKLASH ...
THE FUSE IS BURNING ON IRAN ATTACK

Exit polls show that 11% of voters in Wisconsin's Republican primary were self-admitted Democrats who voted for Santorum almost two-to-one, with the obvious goal of keeping Santorum's campaign attacks alive. That, in effect, means free "commercials" for Obama.
     With polls showing Romney gaining on Santorum -- one says he's already pulled ahead -- in the latter's home state of Pennsyvlania, Santorum now risks the humiliation of losing the primary there. On top of his smashing defeat when he ran for re-election to the Senate, such a loss would finish him politically.

- - - - -

Essential analysis by Peter Friedman ...
   "In the past three years of Obama’s presidency he has bypassed the balance of powers between the Legislative and Executive Branches of government by exacting pseudo-legislation through Presidential fiat, Executive Orders, when Congress refused to ratify his requests.
     "Now, Obama, has directly threatened the Supreme Court of the United States, chastising it as potentially 'activist' should the Court reject the Health Care Mandate as un-Constitutional. This threat flies directly in the face of the doctrine of Constitutional 'Judicial Review', a doctrine well-precedented since it was decided in the seminal case of Marbury v. Madison.
     "It is the Supreme Court which decides the constitutionality of Congressional legislation. Obama’s statement that the Court of 'un-elected persons' should have no authority over legislation passed by a 'Democratically-elected' Congress is a giant step toward dictatorship."

- - - - -

Invention needed. Every time I see Obama's press spokesparrot, Jay Carney, trying to muddle through some specious explanation of an Obama faux pas, I long for the utilization of some sort of device that connects a lie detector ... to a device that delivers a jolting electrical shock ... every time some government stooge tells a whopper.
     If such a device were constructed and attached, poor Jay would look even more panic-stricken.

- - - - -

Survey says ...
     Most (51 percent) Hispanics do not like to be categorized as “Hispanics” or “Latinos,” saying they like to be identified from their family’s country of origin; Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, etc.
     Make of this what you will: Only 21 percent of those polled identified themselves as “Americans.”  (Source--Pew Research)

- - - - -

The headline says it all: "Shelby Steele: The Exploitation of Trayvon Martin -- The absurdity of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton is that they want to make a movement out of an anomaly. Black teenagers today are afraid of other black teenagers, not whites." -- The Wall Street Journal.

If you aren't familiar with the name Shelby Steele, a quick internet search is advisable.

- - - - -

Victor Davis Hanson (National Review Online): No downside for Iran's nuclear ambitions ...
     "Iran, if not stopped, will join the nuclear club, probably within two or three years. It may be stupid to try to preempt Iran; it may be even stupider not to try. But the stupidest assumption of all is that either Iran is not enriching uranium in order to obtain a weapon, or it might through negotiations or sanctions be persuaded to give up trying.
     "Why? In Iran’s way of thinking, nuclear-weapons capability has no downside.
     "Who would be able to deter a bellicose nuclear Iran?
     "Once a rogue regime has the bomb, it seems immune from foreign decapitation.
     "For all the global sermons about nonproliferation, no one tried to stop either North Korea or Pakistan — an American ally — from going nuclear. India laughed when critics deplored the fact that such an impoverished country had diverted a large portion of its limited funds to detonate a bomb in 1974. China earned new international respect when it went nuclear, even as its citizens starved."

Does anyone seriously believe our Main Muslim Massager would do anything to stop Iran's development of nukes, even in the face of repeated threats from the tyrants of Tehran?

- - - - -

Stockton, California, is just one example of a medium-sized city facing imminent bankruptcy. There will be others, probably many others, some likely larger. What has driven these towns and cities into a corner, financially? The formula is the same virtually everywhere.
     Democrat politicians, who find nothing so much fun as spending other people's money, have spent decades buying support from government union with outlandish salaries and exorbitant pension plans.
     In return, a portion of those taxpayer dollars are returned as campaign contributions, along with assistance in turning out a liberal vote, along with rabble-rousing demonstrations, protests, etc.
     The same thing has gone on, of course, at the level of national politics with the same result. By any rational measure, the nation is already bankrupt. In great part because there are far too many people on the government payroll being paid far more than private-enterprise workers are paid for doing essentially the same work. It's irrational and a major factor in our national slide toward repeating the Greek debacle on a far larger scale.

- - - - -

Before anyone panics over word that MIT researchers predict ‘global economic collapse’ by 2030 due to resource consumption, reader Bill reminds us of some history of such predictions from Mark Steyn's book "America Alone" ...
      "In 1968 in his bestselling book The Population Bomb', scientist Paul Ehrlich declared: 'In the 1970s the world will undergo famines - hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.'
      "In 1972, in their landmark study The Limits to Growth, the Club of Rome announced that the world would run out of gold by 1981, of mercury by 1985, tin by 1987, zinc by 1990, petroleum by 1992, and copper, lead and gas by 1993.
      "In 1976 Lowell Ponte published a huge bestseller called 'The Cooling: Has the New Ice Age Already Begun?  Can We Survive?'
      "In 1997, Jimmy Carter, president of the United States (incredible as it may seem), confidently predicted that 'we could use up all of the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade.'"

As Mark reminds us, none of these self-important clowns turned out to be nearly as smart as they thought. The frightening thing is, there are still people who take these dopes seriously.

- - - - -

Len, the haiku master, has further reflections on that town in Wales with the world's longest name ...
      I went to Wales once.
      Went to many pubs and clubs.
      Bbunncchh of bblloddyy ddrrunnkss.

- - - - -

A reader adds this to the above ...
      I was in a pub on Saturday night.  Had a few. I noticed two large women by the bar.
      They both had strong accents so I asked, "Hey, are you two ladies from Scotland?"
      One of them chirped: "It's WALES you idiot!"
      So, I immediately apologized and said..., "Sorry, are you two whales from Scotland ?"
That's the last thing I remember..........

- - - - -

Roseville Phil has the label for the new generation ...
     People born before 1946 were called The Silent and powerful generation.
     People born between 1946 and 1964 are called The Baby Boomers.
     People born between 1965 and 1979 are called Generation X, .
... And people born between 1980 and 2010 are called Generation Y ,

Why do we call the last group Generation Y?
     Y should I get a job?
     Y should I leave home and find my own place?
     Y should I get a car when I can borrow yours?
     Y should I clean my room?
     Y should I wash and iron my own clothes?
     Y should I buy any food?

- - - - -

Conan O'Brien --
     "Newt Gingrich said that Mitt Romney has no principles. In other words, he has given Romney his official endorsement."
April 6 --

"TRIBUTES" TO TRAYVON ...
UNEMPLOYMENT DOWN? NOT REALLY ...
CAREFUL ABOUT BUYING FOREIGN PROPERTY!

I will be conspicuous by my absence for a few days. I'm taking some time off for R & R ... expect to return to this space on the 16th, tanned, rested and ready. Meantime, please hold the e-mails.

- - - - -

"Remember Trayvon!" was the shout from a half-dozen black youths who surrouned Dallas Watts, a 78-year-old man from East Toledo, Ohio. They then proceeded to beat him up, one knocking him down with a blow to the back of the head, another kicking him in the chest. Then the others joined in kicking him, shouting , "Get that white man. This is for Trayvon ... Trayvon lives, white man. Kill that white man!"
     Mr. Watts, who served in Vietnam, said he has never kept a gun in his house. Now he plans to buy a weapon and get a permit to carry it. Perhaps Ohio could use a "stand your ground" law, a la Florida.

- - - - -

Longtime Washington D.C. mayor and currently city council member Marion Barry, doper (remember his remark upon being caught smoking crack cocaine, "The bitch set me up!") and demonstrably a racist, is running again for a seat on the council. He has won the Democratic primary with the usual overwhelming black support.
     His victory speech contained these remarks: “We got to do something about these Asians coming in and opening up businesses and dirty shops.”
     His black fans, who often and loudly complain about racism, avidly support him in his detestable remarks about Asians.

- - - - -

As a former (for several years) Chicago resident, I was not at all surprised to learn from the Chicago Sun Times that a new study found crime was worse in neighborhoods where former Chicago Housing Authority residents used vouchers to move into privately-owned apartments. From 2000 to 2008, violent crime was 21 percent higher in neighborhoods with high concentrations of voucher-holding former CHA residents — when compared to similar neighborhoods without them. This from the Washington-based Urban Institute.
     Property crime also would have been lower without relocated residents in those neighborhoods, the study said.

To any longtime Chicagoan, this is no news whatsoever; everyone's known it for years. When people from the "projects" get taxpayer-subsidized vouchers to move into your neighborhood, you get out -- if you can.
     Better to be called "racist" than "victim." Or "the late ... "

- - - - -

While the Obama administration tells enormous lies about the "improving" unemployment rate, this is the really significant number ...
     People who could and should be in the work force, but aren't: an all-time record high of 87,897,000. The zeros are correct -- almost 88 MILLION.
     The Obamunists obviously operate under the dictum, "Figures lie ... and liars figure."

- - - - -

White House spokesweasel Jay Carney just can't stop lying.  Carney tells the press corps that President Obama's attack on the Supreme Court was misunderstood because he was speaking in "shorthand" since he is a former professor of law.
     No, Jay ... your boss is not, was not and never has been a professor of law. Lecturer, yes ... professor, no. So, again, you're caught in an outright lie.

Even conservative media voices have accepted the falsehood that Barack Obama was a "law professor". He was not. He delivered lectures, but he was never awarded the status of professor. (Source -- University of Chicago Law School ... where he did lecture.)

- - - - -

I believe this is what's called a "mixed-message."
Our tax-dodging Secretary of the Treasury, Tiny Timmy Geithner, says our long-term commitments are "unsustainable" but that can't be the top priority because the government needs to"do things.We have to be willing to do things, not just cut things.”

Condensed, this dope says our insane government is spending too much, but has to continue doing so even though it's the road to disaster.

- - - - -

Columnist Mona Charen assesses the price of wholesale  illegitimacy ...
     "The illegitimacy rate among all Americans has been rising for decades. In 2012, we reached a grim milestone: The majority of births to women under the age of 30 are now outside of marriage. Among blacks, 72 percent of births are to unmarried women. And while some unmarried mothers go on to marry the fathers of their babies, it's rare in the African-American community, where only 31 percent of couples are married (In 1960, it was 61 percent).
      "The result of this adult folly is chaos, misery and often violent death for kids. Why do young males join gangs? Because without a father to guide and protect them, they seek physical protection from human predators as well as ratification of their masculinity from the gang. A counselor at a juvenile detention facility in California told the Patriot Post, "(If) you find a gang member who comes from a complete nuclear family, I'd like to meet him. ... I don't think that kid exists." A full 85 percent of youths in prison come from fatherless homes, as do 80 percent of rapists, 71 percent of high school dropouts, and 63 percent of teen suicides."

But do we expect people who create their own "victim" status will learn from this. Sadly ... no.

- - - - -

A warning about buying property abroad ...
     It is easily understood why many Americans would seriously consider buying either a vacation home or a permanent residence in another country, but BE CAREFUL.
     Let me relate two instances involving people who live within a mile of my Arizona home.
     First, a couple recently arrived after living a few years is Costa Rica, a pleasant and generally peaceful Central America country which is attracting many Americans. So many that real estate prices have reached California levels. They went to Europe on vacation. Gone for only three weeks, they returned to find another family living in their house, which had cost them $375,000.
     Local authorities refused to evict the squatters ... the ownership records had mysteriously disappeared from the appropriate government office (Gee, think somebody was bribed?) ... and even after some $20,000 of legal expenses, they were unable to regain their property rights. Their title insurance, obtained from an "international" firm, refused payment. They lost everything.
     The second case involves a couple who bought just across the border from Arizona on the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, in the town of Puerto Penasco, also known as Rocky Point. The wife was struck with cancer and had to return to the U.S. for treatment because Medicare is no good outside the U.S. -- won't pay, a point to be remembered.
     Fortunately, her treatment was effective and she recovered. But they were away from their Mexican home for a few months. Upon return, they also found a Mexican family living in their house. Authorities refused to evict the squatters; said the house had been "abandoned." The legal owners weren't even allowed to reclaim their possessions from within the house. Total loss.
     A personal addendum. When I was active in the travel industry (co-owner of a chain of Chicago travel agencies) and traveled extensively, I bought a beautifully situated hectare (2.47 acres) near the little town of Pythagorio on the island of Samos, Greece.  I was young and naive. I'd planned to possibly build a vacation home eventually. It is beautiful; take a look at the website.
     Several years later, I learned that squatters had built on the property. In fact, today I can use Google Earth on my computer and look down upon my property -- and the 1 1/2 houses on it!  Being of reasonably sound mind, I did and do realize that my chances of evicting Greek squatters from my land on a Greek island is an impossible task. Fortunately my investment was, in today's dollars, quite small. Samos was not on the tourist map at the time.
     The point is ... be VERY careful about where you buy abroad. Some countries have property laws as good or better than our own. But some don't -- and Latin America is especially notorious. In many countries, far better to rent than buy. Or better yet, stay out. There are other places where property rights are upheld.

- - - - -

Burt Prelutsky clarifies the red-blue dichotomy ..
     "I have come to the conclusion that the late Tim Russert was a world class practical joker. Why else would he have decided that conservative states would be designated red and liberal states blue when, for about 90 years, the world recognized that red was the color of choice for communist and socialist nations and their flags?
     "It made as much sense to suggest that California and Massachusetts should be considered blue and Utah and Oklahoma should be labeled red as to suggest that traffic signals should be reversed so that green means stop and red means go."

- - - - -

Remember when "liberal" activists were aghast when an investor group that included Rush Limbaugh was reported to possibly be buying the St. Louis Rams of the NFL? Keep alert for any objections to rumors that Keith Olbermann, unemployed uber-leftist, is a minor partner in a group said to be interested in buying baseball's Baltimore Orioles. But don't hold your breath.

- - - - -

Al Gore's schlocky little cable network, Current TV, is on the verge of losing its exposure in the many households served by Time Warner Cable. Their viewership doesn't reach the (low) minimum threshold. Now the curse Al placed upon himself by hiring Keith Olbermann is suing him for $50 million. Have fun, boys!

- - - - -

Fox News has hired Jesse Jackson's daughter to do commentary. (No, it's not April Fool's Day and this is not a joke.)

- - - - -

Hooker headlines ...
     Shelley Lynn claims in a lawsuit that she was "economically and psychologically" coerced into prostitution by her ex-husband and former manager at a McDonald's in Arroyo Grande, California.
     Thus the definition of the "Happy Meal" is expanded.

- - - - -

Sheila, a grandmother, on how grandchildren see their grandparents ...
      My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday.   He asked me how old I was, and I told him, 62. My grandson was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, "Did you start at 1?"
      A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather's word processor. She told him she was writing a story.   "What's it about?" he asked. "I don't know," she replied. "I can't read."
     When my grandson and I entered our vacation cabin, we kept the lights off until we were inside to keep from attracting pesky insects. Still, a few fireflies followed us in. Noticing them before I did, Billy whispered, "It's no use, Grandpa. Now the mosquitoes are coming after us with flashlights."
      A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, "Grandma, guess what? We learned how to make babies today." The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool. "That's interesting." she said. "How do you make babies?" "It's simple," replied the girl. "You just change 'y' to 'i' and add 'es'."
      A grandfather was delivering his grandchildren to their home one day when a fire truck zoomed past. Sitting in the front seat of the fire truck was a Dalmatian dog. The children started discussing the dog's duties.
"They use him to keep crowds back," said one child.
"No," said another. "He's just for good luck."
A third child brought the argument to a close."They use the dogs," she said firmly, "to find the fire hydrants."
      A 6-year-old was asked where his grandma lived. "Oh," he said, "she lives at the airport, and when we want her, we just go get her.  Then, when we're done having her visit, we take her back to the airport."

- - - - -

Conan O'Brien --
     "Allegiant Airlines will start charging $35 extra if you have carry-on bags. Meanwhile, JetBlue is charging $35 extra if you want a pilot who isn't insane."

Jimmy Fallon --
     "A Delta flight attendant was removed for acting unstable, but on the bright side he was immediately hired as a pilot for JetBlue."










April 16 --

TEA-PARTY TREACHERY TABOO ...
ROMNEY VS. "IMPOVERISHED" DEMOCRATS ...
DID CHINA DICTATE THE PIPELINE PREEMPTION?

One of the distinctive characteristics of the Tea Party movement has been its lack of centralized leadership or "establishment."
     Now, one self-proclaimed "leader" of the Tea Party presumes to speak for the movement with an announcement that Mitt Romney can expect no support from that element of the Republican Party.
     Let us be clear: Any professed Republican, Tea Party adherent or not, who contributes to the re-election of the disaster that IS Barack Obama deserves excoriation and exclusion from the company of fellow supporters of that valuable movement.
     One does not have to be an admirer of Romney -- and I'm not -- to see that the alternative is far, far worse. Vengeful supporters of Gingrich, Paul, Santorum, et al, need to consider the consequences of election-year sulking.

- - - - -

Reader Herb forwards this observation about Democrat attacks on Romney's wealth ...
     "I don't recall such bluster and hand-wringing over the Kennedy fortune. Or, for that matter, John Kerry. Or the fact that John Kerry gave virtually nothing to charity while Romney gave something on the order of $4 million... in addition to giving away his entire inheritance from his father. Romney worked for his money. Kennedy inherited his."

- - - - -

And ...
Is it not odd that so many deranged liberals who expressed no interest or concern about Barack Obama's religious affiliations, including his long association with a crazed racist, are now obsessed with Mitt Romney's Mormonism?

- - - - -

Consider this possible scenario.
     It is well and widely known that China owns the largest portion of our enormous foreign debt.
     China has for some time been slowly but steadily unloading some of that debt, selling U. S. government bonds to other foreign investors willing to buy.
     The U. S. dollar has been continually declining in value. A sudden massive sale of U. S. indebtedness would trash the value of our currency and wreck our economy, so we are fortunate China has not taken that drastic action. Besides, they need customers for their products.
     Nevertheless, interest-income denominated in the shrinking dollar is obviously less and less attractive. An alternative form of repayment with something of greater value would be desirable for China.
     So ... take a moment to speculate upon this prospect ...
     A phone call from Beijing to Washington delivers this message: "We don't want more of your pitifully weak dollars. So, rather than wreck your economy with a sudden massive sale of your debt instruments, we have an alternative request/demand. Our oil needs are rapidly growing. We have no oil resources of our own. So we want Canada's abundant exports to come to us, not to you.
     "Therefore ... do NOT build the pipeline to bring that Canadian oil to the U.S."
     Sound impossible?

- - - - -

Does anybody seriously believe that Barack Obama will do anything substantive if North Korea proceeds with another provocation in the form of a nuclear weapons test?

- - - - -

Didn't anybody tell those Secret Service agents imbroiled in a bimbo scandal in Colombia that they're supposed to be guard-dogs, not horndogs?
     So the Cartagena hooker wanted only $47 for her services? Obviously, a community organizer is needed down there to raise prices to the "living wage" level.

- - - - -

Coincidentally ...
Some folk seem surprised to learn that VP Joltin' Joe Biden made over twenty grand in rental income from the Secret Service agents whose duty it is to protect his precious butt.  Were those angry and astonished folk not paying attention when some of us who inhabit the blogosphere wrote of this at the very beginning of the Obama Insanity?

- - - - -

The Washington Times makes this point editorially ...
     "Vice President Joe Biden says paying higher taxes is patriotic. He must have forgotten that America was founded on a tax revolt."

Wonder what Joe will have to say if/when, as many insiders predict, Obama dumps him for Hillary to try to grab a larger women's vote ...

- - - - -

Perhaps some blunt candor is in order regarding the Democrats' allegations of a Republican "war on women."
     This is not a blanket indictment of single mothers. However, it is both well-known and seldom discussed that a substantial portion of the support for free-spending liberals on the part of single mothers is based on a simple fact; the fact that Democrats are inclined to be generous with taxpayer money in the form of government subsidies for women whose choices of irresponsible men to father their children has also been irresponsible. Therefore, they depend upon the government -- i.e., the rest of us -- to assume the role of a financially supportive daddy.
     The demand that taxpayers pay for contraception is a linear descendant of this philosophy.

- - - - -

Nominee for "Father of the Year": Cornerback Antonio Cromartie of the New York Jets. Ten children by eight different women. Perhaps he invented the "bump-and-run" defense.

- - - - -

Democrat Congressman Patrick Kennedy, son of Ted, now goes public with information that the Obama White House distributes favors (and taxpayer largesse) based upon political contributions. To borrow from Claude Rains in "Casablanca," I'm SHOCKED! SHOCKED, I tell you!

- - - - -

A subject for conjecture by eggheads: Just how stupid do you have to be in order to believe in the fantasy of solar power as a solution to our energy needs? Given the steady occurrence of bankruptcies among government-subsidized solar "companies" ("fantasies" would be a more apt description) around the world, the wonder is that there are still ANY people dumb enough to believe in this fraud.
     Also, when do we stop speaking sympathetically of the motives of the global-warming promoters and call them what they are -- liars?

- - - - -

Take heart as you face gas pumps with numbers running up to and beyond $4.00 per gallon. Obama's idiot Treasury Secretary Timmy Geithner says not to worry; we can handle even higher prices. A portent of what to expect if the nation blunders into granting Obama a second term.

- - - - -

My friend Sheila calls to my attention one facet of the Japanese tsunami and the aftermath of that enormous catastrophe that has gone unnoticed by the American Big Media.
     Actually, it was an absent factor.
     There was no looting. None.
      Contrast that with, say, public behavior after Hurricane Katrina and similar disasters in the U.S., when mobs seized the opportunity to steal anything they could grab.

- - - - -

Dick Green has expanded my vocabulary with this one-word description of the jewelry overload worn by excessively decorated women; turbo-bling.

- - - - -

I have lived most of my life in big cities (Seattle, Miami, San Francisco, Chicago, et al) after a childhood in rural America. Therefore, I am not unaccustomed to the vicissitudes of urban living. After a couple of days dealing with the Los Angeles traffic trauma, however, I am greatly relieved to return to my small town (about 23,000 souls -- and a few heels) in Arizona.
     With all its plusses, California must have the worst roads in America, a logical heritage of a ridiculous state government.
     I understand my California friends whose family or business attachments impel them to stay, but absent such ties ... for me -- never again!

- - - - -

Dr. Herb forwards this bumper-sticker:
"I'LL PAY FOR YOUR CONTRACEPTION
  WHEN YOU PAY FOR MY AMMUNITION"

- - - - -

While I was on a fact-finding mission, a woman "political advisor" to the Marxist-in-charge allowed as how women who stay home to raise children don't work, which Obama's ridiculous stooge, Jay Carney, tried to turn into an anti-Republican political speech.
     By the way ... does a role as a "political advisor" actually qualify as a ... job??

- - - - -

May I join the chorus that denounces Miami Marlins' manager Ozzie Guillen as an idiot? After getting a taxpayer-subsidized new stadium and hiring this clown with the goal of increasing interest and attendance by Miami's huge Latino community, largely of Cuban descent, this fool goes out of his way to infuriate that audience with remarks applauding the man they hate, Fidel Castro.
     Miami Marlin ownership should fire him; surely a "for cause" argument could be made, since he went out of his way to alienate their customers.
     Severance pay should be limited to a one-way ticket to Cuba, preferably by rowboat, just as many of those who detest him came in the other direction.

- - - - -

Another star athlete has made a mess handling his money. Warren Sapp, who made around $60 million as a pro football player, has declared bankruptcy with almost $7 million in debts. Will they never learn ...

- - - - -

USA Today reports a continuing decline in black Americans' presence in major league baseball. The number is now down to just over 8% of team rosters, whereas foreign-born (mostly Latin American, some Japanese) players make up more than 28% of player personnel. Percentage-wise, the number of blacks in the big leagues is the lowest since the Eisenhower administration.

- - - - -

Reader Arthur provides a few timeless quotes ...
         If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these acceptance speeches there wouldn't be any inducement to go to heaven.   ~Will Rogers
        Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.     ~Nikita Khrushchev
       Why pay money to have your family tree traced? Go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.    ~Author Unknown
       Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.
~John Quinton
       Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. ~Oscar Ameringer
      A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.     ~Texas Guinan, legendary saloonkeeper
      Politics: [Poly "many" + tics  = "blood-sucking parasites"] ~Larry Hardiman

- - - - -

A haiku from the estimable Mr. Sorkin ...
     On Passover we
     opened the door for Elijah.
     Now our cat is gone.

- - - - -

More mangled media language ...
       To DEFUSE literally means to remove the fuse that could ignite an explosive. In common political terminology, it means to eliminate or reduce a cause for conflict.
       DIFFUSE means to scatter or disseminate.
       Journalism schools continue to turn out lunkheads who don't know the difference.

- - - - -

Distressing news from Berlin, Germany, where a man picked up a woman in a bar and took her to his apartment for an evening of unbridled lust ... and got more than he'd anticipated. More to the extent that he called the police to complain that the wench was demanding too much sex and he'd been forced to lock himself out on his balcony to gain relief from her unbridled appetites.
     New possible advertising claim for Viagra: "If erection lasts more than four hours, in Berlin call 555-HORNY."

- - - - -

From Mad Mike ... the grandmother of all Blonde Jokes ...   
This blonde decides that she is sick and tired of how all blondes are perceived as stupid . She decides to show her husband that blondes really are smart.
     While her husband is at work, she decides to paint a couple of rooms in the house.
     Her husband arrives home at 5:30 and smells the distinctive smell of paint.
     He walks into the living room and finds his wife lying on the floor in a pool of sweat.
     He notices that she is wearing both a heavy parka and a leather jacket.
     He goes over and asks her if she if OK, asks what she is doing and she replies that she wanted to prove
to him that not all blond women are dumb, and she wanted to do it by painting in the house.
     He then asks her why she has a parka over her leather jacket.
     She replies that she was reading the directions on the paint can and it said ... “FOR BEST RESULTS, PUT ON TWO COATS.”

- - - - -

Jay Leno --
     "It looks like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are dating, and apparently they're getting serious. Friends say Kanye is the man Kim wants to spend the rest of her month with."
April 17 --

NERVOUS IN THE (SECRET) SERVICE ...
EARNING MONEY FOR YOURSELF -- FINALLY ...
A RACE-BASED RAILROADING IN FLORIDA?

Could an iconoclast make the argument that those Secret Service agents assigned to protect Obama were consorting with hookers because they wanted to hang out with a better class of people?

 "Just when you thought our national debt could not get any worse, we now owe money to Colombian hookers." -- Andy Borowitz, referring to the dispute between a Secret Service agent and a Colombian prostitute over her $47 fee.

- - - - -

Congratulations! If you are that mythical figure, the "average American," today you begin working for yourself. By coincidence, this year the tax-filing deadline date and Tax Freedom Day both occur on the same date. Today. Every moment the average American has worked from January 1 thru yesterday has been rewarded with exactly enough money to pay the combined federal, state and local tax burden. This is four days later than last year, indicating the trend in our monstrous, money-grabbing government. (Other measures of the government ripoff show an even later date, more than six months into the year, but let's not quibble about today's celebratory event.)
     At the present rate, four more years of Obama would push Tax Freedom Day into May. That's not even counting the likely disaster hidden in his projected second-term "flexibility" that he discussed with Russian leaders, but not the American suckers ... er ... citizens.

- - - - -

Gee, wonder what Obama means when he says he'll "ask" some taxpayers to pay more? Since when does the government "ask" if you want to turn over more money for politicians to blow?

- - - - -

Dare we hope that government prosecutors will deal as vigorously with the bunch of thieves at the party-loving General Services Administration as with baseball pitcher Roger Clemens for throwing the ball too hard?

- - - - -

A few things Democrat "advisor" Hilary Rosen left out of her despicable remarks about Ann Romney "never working a day in her life":  Mrs. Romney's first son was born in 1970 while both were undergraduates at Brigham Young University living in a $75-a-month basement apartment. She got her degree from Harvard by taking night courses at Harvard University Extension School. During and after raising five children, she was stricken with multiple sclerosis fifteen years ago. (Source: Wikipedia)

- - - - -

Reader Peter has this reaction to the party of Kennedys, Kerry, et al, attacking Romney's wealth ...
     "Apparently, I’m supposed to be more outraged by what Mitt Romney does with HIS money than by what Barack Obama does with MINE."

- - - - -

Re the Trayvon Martin case ...
     When Al Sharpton takes a leading role, appearing everywhere with the parents, you can be certain that this is turning into a political rant, the volume of which will far outweigh the facts. Demagoguery is the lead item on the menu.

John Fund, writing in National Review, illuminates the built-in Obama administration bias ...
     "Here’s hoping the criminal-justice system cools rather than exacerbates the passions the killing of Trayvon Martin has raised.
     "But Attorney General Eric Holder isn’t helping. Wednesday, he appeared before the Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network to praise Sharpton 'for your partnership, your friendship, and your tireless efforts to speak out for the voiceless, to stand up for the powerless, and to shine a light on the problems we must solve, and the promises we must fulfill.'”

- - - - -

The Daily Caller reports that an online statement from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ “Prophet Mohammad Division” claimed the West has surrendered to Iran’s will and accepted the Islamic republic’s right to nuclear enrichment.
     Brigadier Yadollah Javani, the head of the Guards’ political bureau:  “Iran now, because of its progress in its nuclear program, holds a much stronger position in the negotiations with the West and it seems that the West has now realized that all of its pressure on Iran has proven fruitless, and now it has adopted a correct strategy of accepting a nuclear Iran.”

Of course. Did any rational person expect otherwise from Obama?

- - - - -

Jonah Goldberg on the Obama youth vote ...
     "Obama owed his success to being a charming political unknown onto whom young people could project their hopes. His rhetoric was a hipsterized version of Successories for college kids: 'Yes, we can' and 'We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!'
     "Obama was different. He had that cool name. He was black. He’d never done much that was important, save give some fun speeches, but that was okay; neither had most college students, and that didn’t keep them from being special either. More important, they believed his promises, they liked his style, they bought his easy answers and flattering pandering.
     "All of the exciting reasons to vote for Obama are gone. Even his accomplishments don’t excite people, never mind his failures. His 'Yes, we can' rhetoric is gone because it sounds stupid after four years of 'No, we didn’t.'” -- NRO

- - - - -

Jay Leno --
     "President Obama released his tax returns. It turns out he made $900,000 less in 2011 then he did in 2010. You know what that means? Even Obama is doing worse under President Obama."

- - - - -

The brains of the Obama gang suffers a moment of hoof-in-mouth disease, as John Podhoretz of the NY Post explains ...
     "David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, deserves enormous credit for having fashioned one of the most brilliant national campaigns in American history in 2008. But that was then, and this is now — and now Axelrod has gone on 'Fox News Sunday' and offered the best and most succinct case for a Romney presidency yet.
     “'The choice in this election,' said Axelrod, 'is between an economy that produces a growing middle class and that gives people a chance to get ahead and their kids a chance to get ahead and an economy that continues down the road we are on.'
     "Oops, did I say that? David Axelrod admitted that we aren’t better off than four years ago.
     "Of course, the overseer of the 'road we are on,' the man whose policy it has been to intervene directly and repeatedly in the economic affairs of the American people, is Obama."

- - - - -

Unfulfilled fantasies dep't: Santorum fans who believe Romney could/should/would pick Rick as a running mate.
Talk about kidding yourself ...

- - - - -

Re the doomed (and demagogic) "Buffett rule" ...
     If the so-called "Buffett Rule" requiring million-dollar earners to pay a minimum of 30% of their income to the IRS should ever pass into law, there would be immediate surreptitious action by the same lawmakers who vote FOR it to construct tax-shelters aimed at avoidance of such taxes. It's just a showboat sham game for the gullible suckers who lap up liberal nostrums.
     Any student of history knows we've seen this charade before. The only real victims would be owners of small businesses whose income is grossly exaggerated because it's calculated before legitimate deductions.
     And people smart enough to get rich will continue to get richer. The sheeple, however, will be happier.

"Loopholes are the evasions that everybody in Congress loves to hate, but Congress creates new ones in every tax bill. It’s the love that dare not speak its name." -- Wes Pruden, Washington Times.
     
By the way ... when IS Buffett going to pay the taxes the government says his businesses have owed for years?

- - - - -

Great Moments in Television: The cretinous Bob Beckel, Democrat shill, dropping the F-bomb on live TV (Fox).

- - - - -

Call it a sign of the times. London's Daily Mail newspaper reports that about a half-million British citizens with a net worth of 250,000 pounds (just under $400,000) are considering leaving the country within the next two years because of concerns about crumbling road and rail networks, crime and high taxes.
     Give the U.S. four more years of Obama insanity and a similar trend might be expected here.

- - - - -

Robert Samuelson (RealClearPolitics.com) addresses the much-discussed poll purporting to show which nations are happiest ...
     "On the most comprehensive list, the United States ranks 11th out of 156 countries. Here are the top 10 and their populations: Denmark, 5.6 million; Finland, 5.4 million; Norway, 5 million; Netherlands, 16.7 million; Canada, 34.8 million; Switzerland, 7.9 million; Sweden, 9.5 million; New Zealand, 4.4 million; Australia, 22.9 million; and Ireland, 4.6 million.
      "All these countries share one common characteristic: They're small in population and, except Canada and Australia, land mass. Small countries enjoy an advantage in the happiness derby. They're more likely to have homogeneous populations with fewer ethnic, religious and geographic conflicts. This minimizes one potentially large source of unhappiness."

Something to remember the next time you hear the virtues of diversity applauded.

- - - - -

Greg Gutfeld on Monday attacked comics for not making jokes about the current White House resident. Appearing on Fox News's The Five, Gutfeld said, "Asking a comedian to make fun of Obama is like asking a priest to mock Christ." -- Newsbusters

- - - - -

Jim Eason supplies this compendium of actual newspaper headlines ...
     "BRIDGES HELP PEOPLE CROSS RIVERS"
     "STUDY SHOWS FREQUENT SEX ENHANCES
                 PREGNANCY CHANCES"
     "MEETING ON OPEN MEETINGS IS CLOSED"
     "MAN ACCUSED OF KILLING LAWYER RECEIVES
                  A NEW ATTORNEY"
     "COUNTY TO PAY $250,000 TO ADVERTISE LACK OF FUNDS"
     "FEDERAL AGENTS RAID GUN SHOP, FIND WEAPONS"
     "HOMICIDE VICTIMS RARELY TALK TO POLICE"
     "MAN WITH 8 DUIs BLAMES DRINKING PROBLEM"
     "RALLY AGAINST APATHY DRAWS SMALL CROWD"

- - - - -

My friend Mike, who likes to point out that his last name ends in a vowel, revels in the telling of this one ...
     "A friend is someone who will help you move. A really GOOD friend is someone who will help you move ... a body."
April 18 --

SO LONG, SPACE PROGRAM ...
THE AFGHAN'S EXTORTION RACKET ...
OBAMA, SPECULATORS AND COMMON SENSE

"The "glorious" last fly-by of the space shuttle over Washington D. C. was no cause for celebration, it was a funeral for one of the proudest eras in the history of a declining America: the space program, sacrificed to the agenda of a socialist fanatic in the White House.
     As James Robbins points out in today's Washington Times editorial ...
"President Obama spent as much in a single year on his failed 2009 stimulus program as the entire NASA budget, in today’s dollars, from 1958 to the present. That includes the Mercury and Gemini missions, project Apollo and the moon landings, the space shuttles and space stations, the Hubble telescope and everything else NASA has done."

Any future American space exploration will be little league, hitchhiking on Russian and Chinese spacecraft. That is, unless and until the American voting public awakens to shed its foolishness. And don't kid yourself: Obama's America IS in decline -- which was his goal all along. He said so when he denigrated the very idea of American exceptionalism.

- - - - -

... and the Oscar for Unmitigated Gall goes to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who -- after denouncing U.S. military personnel and demanding that they leave the country, now further demands that American taxpayers give him at least $2 billion a year. Indefinitely. Wait and watch: the fools in Washington will do it.

- - - - -

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, cognizant of growing public disgust with out-of-control government spending, says he regrets that his regular weekend trips from Washington back to his California home cost the taxpayers $32,000 each.
     A two-part suggestion he might consider: #1, go home. #2, stay there.
     Or borrow Nancy Pelosi's broom for the trip.

- - - - -

Blaming "speculators" for oil prices is a standard tactic for leftist demagogues. People who are so ignorant of economics as to buy into such nonsense are so stupid that, in a rational nation, they wouldn't even be allowed to vote. Or go out in the rain by themselves.
     Speculators are simply bold investors who are willing to interpret information and make their own judgments about the future value of a product. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. They don't "fix" the market, they simply reflect and anticipate it. But they make handy scapegoats for a failed president.

- - - - -

Peronism is alive again in Argentina. Madame Kirchner has nationalized the YPF oil company, majority ownership of which belonged to the Repsol company of Spain. Now, what kind of fool would any potential foreign investor have to be to decide investment in Argentina would be a wise move?
     Argentinians have repeatedly demonstrated a self-destructive short-term view, fed by opportunistic politicians.
Americans, take note: the Obamunists are leading this nation on the same course, trading the future for immediate gratification, appealing to a populace of spoiled brats.

- - - - -

The take from Investors Business Daily on Argentina's expropriation of that oil company ...
     "Never was a response to a global outrage more mealy-mouthed than the one from the U.S. after Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, standing under a portrait of Evita Peron, announced a brazen grab for YPF, the Argentine oil company that's 57% owned by Spain's Repsol.
     "But the U.S.? 'We are following developments on this issue. We are not currently aware of any WTO complaints related to this issue,' the State Department said.
     "Fernandez heard President Obama the first time when he declared that the free market 'doesn't work. It's never worked.'"

Yes, Americans ... those ARE the words of our Dear Leader. Remember?

- - - - -

Electric car-makers have tried to find a market since the 1800's (yes!) with little success. Devotees of the ongoing fad will be dismayed to hear that, even with government subsidies and endless free media hype, sales last year made up less than 0.1 percent of the U.S. car and light truck market. That's less than one-TENTH of one percent.
 (Source: Detroit News)

- - - - -

A Democrat nutjob's elitism on display ...
     "Joe Kennedy III, the Democratic candidate for Rep. Barney Frank’s seat, wrote an online letter to supporters calling for an end to 'cheap oil.'”  (Source: The Daily Caller)'

Take away this dope's last name, and he'd be a joke. To sane people, he already is.

- - - - -

Arnold Ahlert in Frontpage Magazine offers a glimpse of our Big Media's priorities ...
     "On Monday in New York City, would-be jihadist Zarein Ahmedzay testified in Brooklyn federal court that co-conspirator Adis Medunjanin 'was committed' to carrying out a wave of terrorist attacks in New York City. A third man, Najibullah Zazi, has already pleaded guilty to the plot that was unraveled by the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the FBI. On the same day, the Associated Press (AP) won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories 'revealing the New York Police Department’s widespread spying on Muslims.' It was precisely such 'spying that thwarted several terrorist plots all designed to once again to kill untold numbers of innocent New Yorkers."

Footnote: I used to work in management at the Pulitzer family's flagship radio state and rapidly concluded that the Pulitzer folk were no prize. The family "smarts" -- if it ever had any -- decayed generations ago.

- - - - -

The TSA (Transportation Security Administration) is simply a vast, government-run criminal enterprise, creating jobs for people who might otherwise be unemployable. The fact that the courts permit its depredations to continue is further indication of what a fetid swamp our government has become.
     When did you ever hear of these uniformed clowns actually catching a terrorist?

- - - - -

What kind of dopes is the Secret Service hiring? Guys who believe saying, "I work for Obama," entitles them to freebies from hookers?

From Len, the haiku guru ...
     Whitehouse to Cathouse.
     Did everyone get Serviced?
     That will be Secret !

- - - - -

How long before North Korean punk-leader Kim Jong Un's hairstyle becomes a new fad?

- - - - -

Linda offers this update on Obama campaign bumper-stickers.
From "Hope and Change" to "Hate and Chaos."

- - - - -

Phil from Roseville, Ca., is a punny guy ...
     When chemists die, they barium.
     Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.
     I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid.  He says he can stop any time.
     How does Moses make his tea?  Hebrews it.
     I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.
     This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore.
     I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. I can't put it down.
     I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.
     A dyslexic man walks into a bra.
     Energizer bunny arrested -- charged with battery.
     I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me!
    Velcro - what a rip off!

- - - - -

Mad Mike with some thoughts on aging ...
        A distraught senior citizen phoned her doctor's office.
       "Is it true," she wanted to know, "that the medication you prescribed has to be taken for the rest of my life?"
       "Yes, I'm afraid so," the doctor told her.
       There was a moment of silence before the senior lady replied, "I'm wondering, then, just how serious my condition is, because this prescription is marked 'NO REFILLS'."

First you forget names, then you forget faces.
Then you forget to pull up your zipper... it's worse when you forget to pull it down.


April 19 --

GEN. SHERMAN: “WAR IS HELL” …
LIBS WANT YOUR RETIREMENT MONEY …
MORE SHOCKS FOR ELECTRIC CAR BUSINESS

Acknowledging that some may be offended by the photos of GIs displaying body-parts of terrorists who blew themselves up in an attempt to kill those same GIs, others may also be offended by Panetta, Hillary and an assortment of politicized generals and their resultant (mock?) horror.

     Perhaps they -- and the public -- need to be reminded that war is not a gentleman's game of touch football, especially when murderous terrorist fanatics choose to blow themselves up in order to kill others – often innocent civilians.

     The reaction of so-called 'leaders" should also be a reminder that the object of a war is to win, not to exit with the Miss Congeniality award.

- - - - -

WARNING TO RETIREES, PRESENT AND FUTURE …

There are plans by liberal politicians in the works that would remove some or all tax sheltering of retirement plans – IRA's, pensions, annuities, etc. – as part of the government's endless grasping for more revenue to subsidize vote-buying programs.

This plot proceeds from the eternal liberal assumption that all money really belongs to the government and you're lucky to be allowed to keep a portion of what you earn. Reduced to essentials, their philosophy – and policy – can be simply stated: “You earn it … we take it.”

- - - - -

 It's time someone conveyed the following message to Rick Santorum: "You lost. Get over it. And either openly join the Obama campaign or shut the (bleep) up! You're alienating so many people with your continuing attacks on the overwhelmingly likely nominee of your party that you're killing your chances for another run in four or eight years."

- - - - -

The hypocrisy is just ... stunning!

     The party that presented the nation with the likes of John Kennedy (inherited fortune) and John Kerry (who married one) wants to make an issue of the wealth of Mitt Romney, who earned it!

- - - - -

    CNN reports that a 50-year-old man who said he felt that airport screeners were "harassing" him stripped naked at Portland International Airport.

     Personal note: A few years ago, fed up with harassment by a member of the TSA airport Gestapo at SFO who told me I might have to submit to a strip-search, I told him, "Okay -- I'll do it right here -- in front of other passengers -- but be forewarned. I go 'commando!'"

     He quickly decided not to pursue the issue.

("Commando" comes from the military term for "without undergarments".)

- - - - -

More disastrous news from the electric-car debacle...

     The Detroit News reports that General Motors Co. officials say damage could hit $5 million following an explosion last week in a battery-testing lab at its Tech Center in Warren, according to a police report.

- - - - -

 ... and still more, from Washington's Free Beacon ...

    "Electric car company Fisker Automotive has fired an additional 12 workers from its flagship plant in Delaware, leading to concerns that the once-bustling car company will fail to live up to its promise to produce a new line of plug-in hybrids.

      "According to one of the fired workers who spoke with Autoblog, Fisker’s plant is “absolutely empty,” devoid of the equipment and personnel necessary to produce its hybrid cars on schedule."

Footnote to this silliness: Last week I put over a thousand miles on a Toyota Corolla, both city (Los Angeles) and highway driving, and averaged almost 43 MPG. Which reminded me why it seems foolish to pay thousands of dollars more for a skinny-wheeled, overpriced hybrid that does no better.

- - - - -

Another reason to hang onto your old car ...

     A bill already passed by the Senate and set to be rubber stamped by the House would make it mandatory for all new cars in the United States to be fitted with black box data recorders from 2015 onwards.

      The legislation, which has been given the Orwellian title ‘Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act’, sailed through the Senate after being heavily promoted by Democrats Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer and is also expected to pass the Republican-controlled House. (Source: Infowars.com)

Big brother, keeping an eye on you wherever you go.

- - - - -

Financial Times wonders why more young people are no longer driving. Simple. They can't afford Obama gasoline.

- - - - -

    Bloomberg business news has a reality-check for the gullible who are inclined to believe Obama's silly attack on "speculators" as the cause of high gasoline prices ...
     "Speculators also operate in the markets for natural gas, where prices have plunged almost 60 percent in the past year because of vast increases in supplies."

Clear enough?

- - - - -

The Daily Caller resurrects an item from B.O.'s obscure past ...
     "While some are in a tizzy over the fact that Mitt Romney transported his dog to a family vacation on the top of the family car back in the 1980s, The DC's Jim Treacher points out that President Obama has EATEN dog, according to his own account in his memoir."
     The quote, referring to his Indonesian stepfather: “With Lolo, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy). Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. He explained that a man took on the powers of whatever he ate: One day soon, he promised, he would bring home a piece of tiger meat for us to share.”

     From Chapter Two of Obama's "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance."
 
Let's hope somebody has warned Bo, the current White House canine, to be careful!

- - - - -

    A bottom-line message any person with a triple-digit IQ can address to Obama sheeple: "Obama hasn't accomplished one serious thing other than run the nation irretrievably into debt."

- - - - -

    Brits are wising-up to the reality that Barack Obama is not to be trusted. Niles Gardiner of the Telegraph, a major British newspaper, lays it out …

“Barack Obama has no interest in standing with Britain over the Falklands, declaring in a press conference in Colombia at the Summit of the Americas:

'And in terms of the Maldives [sic] or the Falklands, whatever your preferred term, our position on this is that we are going to remain neutral. We have good relations with both Argentina and Great Britain, and we are looking forward to them being able to continue to Dialogue on this issue. But this is not something that we typically intervene in.'
“The Obama presidency has made it clear that it views Britain and Argentina as equal allies. This, despite the fact that Great Britain is a world power that has fought alongside the Americans in almost every major US-involved war over the past 70 years (with the notable exception of Vietnam).”

- - - - -

    Just to be clear, the real reason the Establishment Big Media despise internet sources of news and commentary -- like this one -- is because it breaks their stranglehold on information and allows unpleasant truths about their liberal cronies to be revealed.

- - - - -

 Down-to-earth economist Walter Williams adds a dash of realism ...
     "Affordable housing and health care costs are terms with considerable emotional appeal that politicians exploit but have absolutely no useful meaning or analytical worth. For example, can anyone tell me in actual dollars and cents the price of an affordable car, house or myomectomy?
     "A good economist recognizes that harm is not a one-way street; it's reciprocal. For example, if I own a lot and erect a house in front of your house and block your view of a beautiful scene, I've harmed you; however, if I am prevented from building my house in front of yours, I'm harmed. Whose harm is more important? The person who is harmed can use government thugs to have things his way.
     "Americans have been miseducated into thinking that Roosevelt's New Deal saved our economy. That miseducation extends to most academics, including economists, at our universities, who are arrogant enough to believe that it's possible for a few people in Washington to have the information and knowledge necessary to manage the economic lives of 313 million people."

- - - - -


    Any liberals who are worried about a "war on women" need to take a close look at what (Obama's fellow?) Muslims are doing in Afghanistan ... poisoning young girls who dare to attend school.

- - - - -

Terry Jeffrey of Human Events reminds us ...
     "In the 39 months since Barack Obama took the oath of office as president of the United States, the federal government’s debt has increased by $5,027,761,476,484.56."

- - - - -

Impenetrable Stupidity department: A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 55% of Adults nationwide believe most wealthy people in this country pay less than their fair share in taxes.
     Fact: People earning over $50,000 a year pay more than 93% of all federal income taxes; the top 1% pay 34% of all such taxes ... the top 5% pay 59%. And the bottom half pay none.
     Thank your education system and the media for feeding such foolishness to the public.

- - - - -     

    More on Americans' ignorance … from the Washington Post …

    “A majority of people don’t know the name of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. More frightening? Eight percent named Thurgood Marshall, who not only was never the Chief Justice but also died in 1993. And let’s not even talk about the four percent who think Harry Reid, a Senator not a member of the Supreme Court, is the Chief Justice.”

   So … where to place blame? A media that feeds ignorance … a failed “education” system … or simply lazy brains?

Joseph writes from the Bay Area ...
     "Last Sunday my wife and I were driving from Santa Cruz to the boat show in Oakland.  My wife pointed out the impressive Solyndra signs over the $733 million empty buildings. Then as we traveled a little farther there was the Tesla building. Another $465 million Dept. of Energy loan for a company making the $100 M + electric car for the common citizen. Right in the middle of these two successes is the NUMMI plant. It is amazing that anyone who actually works for a living can drive this route and still vote for a liberal."

- - - - -

Deathless quote from Barbara Walters on "The View" ...
      ”Women, especially women like us who work and who argue and this and that, when you go home you want the guy to be in charge, and more than be in charge — do very kinky things.”

Coming next on men's room walls: "For a good time, call Barbara at 555- ... "

- - - - -

Here's a businessman committed to giving jobs to Americans instead of foreigners.
     Dennis Hof, who owns the Bunny Ranch (legal) whorehouse in Carson City, Nevada, has offered to send a team of his women to accompany Secret Service agents on overseas trips.

- - - - -

Dr. Bud observes that ...
      Had the Secret Service flap been on Clinton's watch they would have been thought of as advance scout party for the boss and been rewarded handsomely.

- - - - -

The Secret Service meets with Colombian hookers...
The Secret Service meets with Ted Nugent...

Jim Eason awaits revelation of the missing ingredient in the latest scandal ...
There's the "SEX"...and the "ROCK AND ROLL"...  Where's the "DRUGS?"

Oops: How about that (alleged) cocaine?

- - - - -

In other tasteless news ...
     The citizenry of of F---ing, Austria, (yes, it DOES exist) are voting on whether to change the name of their town. As the mayor says, “The only problem is that we need all the F---king residents to agree’’ that a change should be made.

- - - - -

Mr. Hill has some things you should know ...
     People with higher IQs are more likely to stay up late into the night.
     Sandwiches taste better when someone else makes them for you.
     In France, the way of saying "OMG" (Oh, my God), is "OMD" (Oh Mon Dieu).
     The word, LEGO came from the Danish, "LEg Godt" which means "Play well".
     Printer ink is more expensive than human blood.
     The words, "Hong Kong" can be spoken without moving your lips.
     Cat owners are 30% less likely to suffer a heart attack.

Now you are a wiser person.

- - - - -

    Jay Nordlinger of NRO finds a bar in Minot, North Dakota called The Pour Farm.

- - - - -

The sensitive Mr. Sorkin provides this one ...

      A man is sitting at home alone when he hears a knock on the front door. He opens it to find two sheriff's deputies there. He asks if there is a problem.

      One of the deputies asks if he is married. He says, "Yes, I am.
      The deputy then asks if he could see a picture of the man's wife.
      The guy says, "Sure," and gets a photo to show them.
      The deputy says, "I'm sorry, sir. But it looks like your wife's been hit by a truck."
      The guy replies, "I know, but she has a great personality and is an excellent cook."


April 20 --

BIG GOVERNMENT = SPENDTHRIFTS ...
ECONOMIC FAILURE AS CAMPAIGN ISSUE ...
BIG BAD BOB'S "F"-WORD FALLOUT ON FOX

It's connect-the-dots time, with a brief reminder of political fundamentals ...
     Democrats love big government. Big government breeds big tax-supported bureaucracies. These bureaucracies, by their very nature, exist to spend taxpayer money.
     Often they are unable to resist the temptation to dip deeply into the cookie jar for personal enjoyment, hence such scandals as the current GSA affair illuminated by organizer Jay Neely's statement that , "I know I'm bad ... but why not enjoy it while we can? It ain't gonna last forever."
     Always remember and never forget: Nothing is more fun than spending other people's money, and that's what politicians and their appointed bureaucrats do all day, every day.

How can I put this subtly? Okay ... let's try it this way: Anybody who forgets these facts is stupid.

- - - - -

This must be disconcerting for Obamunists. This is from the liberal Washington Post's report on the liberal New York Times/CBS poll ...
      "A slightly larger share of voters said they would do worse economically if the president is reelected; 40% of parents say they have had to alter expectations for the type of college they can afford; 40% of Americans say they are falling behind financially; 60% say the country is on the wrong track; and half of all voters say that the future of the next generation will be worse."

Yet Obama's in-crowd persists in a pose of confidence in public.  What's that old saying about "whistling past the graveyard?"

- - - - -

Was it an "Oopsie" or a revelation? That's the question now that Florida's Senator Marco Rubio has said, "I'm going to have the chance to contribute to that as a United States Senator. I'm excited about that prospect. Three, four, five, six, seven years from now, if I do a good job as a Vice President -- I'm sorry, as Senator, I'll have the chance to do all sorts of things."

- - - - -

Victor Davis Hanson points out in National Review Online that sometimes presidential campaigns, like love, are lovelier the second time around ...
     "Romney is a more experienced and better candidate than he was in 2008. That often happens after a run or two. Nixon was tougher in 1968 than in 1960 in the way that Reagan was wiser in 1980 than in 1968 and 1976, and George H. W. Bush was better in 1988 than in 1980.
     "Romney is going to be a lot tougher on Obama than was McCain in 2008. For all the complaints against his moderation by the tea-party base, they will slowly rally to him as he makes arguments against Obama of the sort that McCain was perceived as unable or unwilling to make. Romney knows where McCain’s magnanimity got him in 2008.
     "It is no longer 'cool, the thing to do, neat, or making a statement to vote for Obama. The 2008 lemming effect is over; no one believes any more that he will lower the seas or wants to believe that he can."

- - - - -

In calling attention to the blatant hypocrisy of Democrats attacking Romney's wealth, while I did point out both JFK and John Kerry having unearned wealth, I neglected to mention Al Gore's family fortune, which was largely built when Daddy Gore was a Senator from Oklahoma and somehow got loaded with loot while tight with the big oil interests there.

- - - - -

Reader Andy observes ...
     "If Ann Romney can't comment on the economy because, "she never worked a day in her life," then Barack Obama can't comment on job creation because he never created a job in his life."

- - - - -

Predictably, the use of the "F"-word on Fox News channel by the repulsive Bob Beckel has stirred some annoyed conservatives to ask why the FCC hasn't intervened, illustrating again that many people don't recognize the difference between broadcast television and cable television. Fox News is not an over-the-air facility; it is delivered only via wire.
     Despite the common usage of the term "on the air" by cable personalities, it is NOT, in fact, "on the air".
Cable programming is not broadcast over the public airwaves and thus is not subject to the same restrictions as over-the-air TV. You may likely be receiving broadcast TV via your cable system, but that's because the cable operation is picking it up via an antenna for delivery to you -- likely with a better picture than you'd get from your own antenna.

Tomorrow we will devote similar space to explaining baseball's infield-fly rule.

- - - - -

Ann Coulter gets in the faces of gun-grabbers ...
     "We don't know the facts yet, but let's assume the conclusion MSNBC is leaping to is accurate: George Zimmerman stalked a small black child and murdered him in cold blood, just because he was black.
     "If that were true, every black person in America should get a gun and join the National Rifle Association. "Apparently this has occurred to no one because our excellent public education system ensures that no American under the age of 60 has the slightest notion of this country's history."
     "Gun control laws were originally promulgated by Democrats to keep guns out of the hands of blacks. This allowed the Democratic policy of slavery to proceed with fewer bumps and, after the Civil War, allowed the Democratic Ku Klux Klan to menace and murder black Americans with little resistance. (Contrary to what illiterates believe, the KKK was an outgrowth of the Democratic Party, with overlapping membership rolls.)"
     -- Entire article at Townhall.com

- - - - -

Are any Democrats embarrassed that their party came thisclose to placing the lying and otherwise contemptible John Edwards a heartbeat from the presidency?

- - - - -

Wes Pruden, editor emeritus of the Washington Times, reflects on the Secret Service Colombia scandal ...
     "This is a particularly sad episode for the Secret Service, which has been trying for four decades to live down a reputation for drunken malfeasance on the night before John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, for partying until 5 in the morning at the Fort Worth Press Club. One of JFK’s agents later told author Edward Klein ('The Kennedy Curse') that 'drinking, partying and sex became part of traveling with the president.'”

- - - - -

Why are the taxpayers still paying for Secret Service protection for Newt Gingrich? Even he admits his presidential candidacy is virtually hopeless.
     Don't Secret Service personnel have better things to do? (Please: hold the Colombia hooker jokes.)

- - - - -

So Obama was a youngster when he ate dog. But he wasn't a kid when he wrote about it, expressing neither regret nor revulsion at a practice most Americans find detestable. So is THAT "off-limits" for discussion and macabre jokes?

- - - - -

"Romney put his dog on the roof of his car...
Obama put his on the roof of his mouth." -- Jim Eason.

- - - - -

And they just keep coming ...
      This from reader Phil about Obama's favorite songs ...
"Wok the Dog" ... "How much is that doggie in the window?"

- - - - -

The American Spectator's Jay Hornick has observations on the reports of rapidly increasing numbers of Americans renouncing their citizenship and resuming their lives in other countries ...
     "People look around them and what do they see? Decay and demoralization. The space program has been outsourced to Russia and the only people getting married are gay. Achievers are being castigated for acting superior and hoods in hoodies are being lauded for acting inferior. The private sector has lost its heart and the public sector has lost its soul.
     "Our soldiers are dispirited and beginning to misbehave. Washington bureaucrats are fiddling while Rome burns and shooting video as they ease on down the road paved with good intentions. Members of the Secret Service advance detail are entertaining us with the details of their advances.
     "Israel can do no right and Muslims can do no wrong. It is evil to smoke but virtuous to pull the plug on disabled people. The government insists on watching our calories but refuses to watch the voting booth."

- - - - -

Just asking ...
     Does anybody buy timeshares anymore? Resales at huge discounts seem to glut the market.

- - - - -

How did we reach such a point of illiteracy that many people are unable to distinguish between the casual greeting "Hey" and the substance fed to livestock, "Hay?"
     Tip to employers: Never hire an applicant who uses "'coz" as an abbreviation for "because"; you'll regret it.
     Also ... "affect" and "effect" are different words. The former applies to the cause, the latter to the result.
     With the growing illiteracy quotient, it's predictable that at some future date Americans will be communicating with grunts, screeches and gestures.

- - - - -

Even in the Wall Street Journal ...
     Reader Chris caught the use of CACHE when CACHET was the correct word. Cachet (Ca-SHAY) refers to prestige ... cache (CASH) is a storage place.

- - - - -

And which do you prefer -- likable or LikEable? Dictionaries disagree.

- - - - -

In some sort of perverse way, it's simply ingenious the way manufacturers can forecast the lifespan of their products so accurately. A part of my pool's operating system just gave up after ten years and two months. The warranty was good for ten years.

- - - - -

Distressing news from South Dakota, where a convict is suing the hospital where he was born and circumcised on grounds that the procedure deprived him of his sexual prowess.
     He also wants his foreskin restored.
     (Now, where did we put that thing ... )

- - - - -

The Sky-guy strikes again ...
     A man goes to visit in the nursing home his 84-year old father.  While there he notices the nurse is giving his father hot chocolate and Viagra.
     The man asks, "Why are you doing that?  I mean, at his age what will it do for him?"
     The nurse explains, "Hot chocolate will help him sleep."
     The man says, "And the Viagra?"
     "Keeps him from rolling out of bed."
April 21 --

ODD SOURCES OF OBAMA CAMPAIGN MONEY ...
BUREAUCRATS BURN BUX TO SAVE BUDGET ...
PIPELINE PROCRASTINATION SCARES DEMOCRATS

Bedfellows ...
     Obama campaign reports, required under law, show that Jon Corzine is still giving financial support to the embattled president. Lest it be forgotten, Corzine was head of the bankrupt MF Global outfit that somehow "lost" billions of investor dollars.

- - - - -

Wait for it. Reports that money from China and Russia has found its way into Obama's campaign coffers. Even if substantiated, it won't hurt him with core Democrat voters. After all, it was an open secret that Clinton was getting money from China and was re-elected, anyway.
     Remember that Chinese restaurant owner in Little Rock who was believed to be the conduit? He later moved to China, then returned to the U.S. in a few years and got a minor wrist-slap -- while Clinton was still in office.

- - - - -

Parteee!!! ...
     It appears that a secondary reason for the $823,000 party thrown in Las Vegas by the government leeches at the GSA (Government Services Agency) was that old bureaucrats' standby, burning up the budget.
     It's a creed among these parasites that you must never have any budget money left over at the end of the year, lest some odd and unusual member of Congress propose that the budget for the succeeding year be cut by that amount -- so you blow it, as insurance against such a dread eventuality.
     Of course, we all learned long ago that the use of the term "Service" as part of the title of any government agency (start with the Internal Revenue "Service") redefines the meaning of the word to "What a bull does to a cow."
     The next question is, how many of the sleazy Obama appointees who planned this shindig will wind up in prison? Don't hold your breath ...

- - - - -

Some Congressional Democrats, significantly including members of the Democrat-controlled Senate, are bailing out on support of Obama's ban of the pipeline project to bring oil from Canada. Amazing how awareness of a threat to his/her own political survival will clarify a politician's thinking.
     Whatever Obama promised the Chinese -- like letting them have Canadian oil -- in exchange for their not yanking the chain on our huge debt to them that his administration largely accumulated -- the pipeline will be built.  It will either be begun during the Obama administration as he is steam-rollered by veto-proof congressional action, or by his successor. Our Marxist-in-charge bit off more than he can chew by blocking this vital project.

- - - - -  

Even the New York Times smells trouble in Obamaland ...
     "President Obama’s re-election campaign is straining to raise the huge sums it is counting on to run against Mitt Romney, with sharp dropoffs in donations from nearly every major industry forcing it to rely more than ever on small contributions and a relative handful of major donors. From Wall Street to Hollywood, from doctors and lawyers, the traditional big sources of campaign cash are not delivering for the Obama campaign as they did four years ago."

- - - - -

"Watching President Obama stumble through his energy crisis, it seems only a question of whether he will end up channeling Jimmy Carter or President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina.
     "The latter, in case you missed it, just announced that her government will be seizing a 51 percent interest in YPF, the Argentine subsidiary of Repsol, the Spanish conglomerate that is the 15th largest refiner in the world. In most places, that would be called theft, but in the banana republic of Argentina it's just business as usual. In making her announcement, Fernandez de Kirchner stood directly beneath a wall-length portrait of Eva Peron haranguing the masses sometime back in the 1940s.
     "So that brings us back to our own Man of the People, President Obama, who is really only in the kindergarten of such retrograde policies but giving it a try. On Tuesday he stood in the Rose Garden flanked by his two apostles of freedom and justice, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Attorney General Eric Holder, and announced the solution to our energy problems will be hunting down and prosecuting evil 'oil speculators' who are responsible for driving up the price of gas in the U.S.
     "Unfortunately, his own anti-energy policies and past quotes about raising gasoline prices have overshadowed all ... (his errors). So instead, he has to make a big show of tracking down'speculators'"
    (Entire article by William Tucker at The American Spectator website)

- - - - -

So a once-great, now-bad airline (American) may be taken over by a worse airline (US Airways). Hang in there, Greyhound! You may yet be the wave of the future in transportation!

- - - - -

From Infowars.com ...
     "Writing for Forbes Magazine, climate change alarmist Steve Zwick calls for skeptics of man-made global warming to be tracked, hunted down and have their homes burned to the ground, yet another shocking illustration of how eco-fascism is rife within the environmentalist lobby."

- - - - -

Rush to judgment ...
     Inside Radio has checked out the latest Rush Limbaugh ratings. The result -- as any broadcasting pro could (and did) predict -- a big increase in  the number of listeners.
     The attacks on Limbaugh backfired, bigtime. They usually do. History is replete with examples. When "The Simpsons" debuted on TV, people who just didn't "get it" were outraged and protests were organized. Result: The Simpsons became the longest-running sitcom -- live, taped, filmed or animated -- in the history of the medium.

- - - - -

The murder charge against George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case and the subsequent release of photos showing Zimmerman DID have injuries on the back of his head, substantiating his self-defense claim, brings this response from a famous -- and liberal -- attorney:
     "Professor Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School stated upon release of the arrest affidavit that it was “so thin that it won’t make it past a judge on a second degree murder charge … everything in the affidavit is completely consistent with a defense of self-defense.”
     After the release of the photo, however, Dershowitz went much further, telling Breitbart News that if the prosecutors did have the photo and didn’t mention it in the affidavit, that would constitute a “grave ethical violation,” since affidavits are supposed to contain “all relevant information.”
     Dershowitz continued, “An affidavit that willfully misstates undisputed evidence known to the prosecution is not only unethical but borders on perjury because an affiant swears to tell not only the truth, but the whole truth, and suppressing an important part of the whole truth is a lie."  --  (Source: Big Hollywood, founded by Andrew Breitbart)

- - - - -

The lies from the White House continue, and the Big Media collaborate.
     Again ... Barack Obama was NEVER a law professor. He gave lectures, but was never, ever named a professor by any educational institution.
     The reputation of the University of Chicago Law School is forever blemished by the fact that he had even such a limited role as a lecturer. A man who thinks it would be "unprecedented" for the Supreme Court to overturn unconstitutional laws passed by Congress and signed by the president is obviously unfit to feed such nonsense into young minds.

- - - - -

The Wall Street Journal takes note of the slow-motion collapse of California under the burden of political craziness ...
     "Nearly four million more people have left the Golden State in the last two decades than have come from other states."

- - - - -

Correction: The first Senator Al Gore was from Tennessee, not Oklahoma. He did retain strong ties to the oil industry of Oklahoma, served on the board of directors of oil and coal companies and was deeply involved in business ties with Armand Hammer, a tycoon later documented as a Soviet agent. Gore Sr. was VP and on the board of Occidental Petroleum, the keystone of Hammer's empire.
     An earlier Senator Gore was elected in Oklahoma. He was the grandfather of author Gore Vidal and related to the Tennessee Gores.

- - - - -

Arizona wildlife report: My office overlooks a courtyard where a Mexican iguana suns himself on a large boulder.

- - - - -

Crime does not pay! (But the hours are good ... )
     From Florida, police report that the 29-year-old man wanted on felony charges including cocaine dealing was caught while trying to flee police because he wore those teenager baggy pants down around his butt. As he was running, his trousers fell around his ankles and tripped him.

- - - - -

The irrepressible Maxine has some health tips that counter conventional
wisdom ...
     1. If walking is good for your health, the postman would be immortal.
     2. A whale swims all day, only eats fish, only drinks water, and is fat.
     3. A rabbit only eats vegetables, runs and hops all day long, and only lives 5 years.
     4. A tortoise doesn't run and does nothing energetic, yet it lives for 450 years

- - - - -

The Sky Guy contributes this one ...
     A little old man shuffled into a ice cream parlor and pulled himself slowly and painfully up onto the wooden stool...
     After he caught his breath, the young lady waitress came over.  He looked over the menu and ordered a banana split.
     The waitress asked kindly, "Crushed nuts?"
     "No," he replied, "Arthritis."
April 22 --

SILVER SPOON SILLINESS ...
PERUSING POLITICAL POLYGAMY ...
BARACK'S COUSIN BERATES OBAMACARE

What could be more absurd? Two people, Barack and Michele, graduates of Harvard Law School (thanks to somebody's checkbook) plaintively disclosing that they "weren't born with a silver spoon in our mouths."

- - - - -

Worst political blunder of the past week: Montana Democrat Governor Brian Schweitzer's attempt to bring polygamy into the presidential race by mentioning that Mitt Romney's GRANDFATHER had once lived in a Mormon community in Mexico where some members -- not the grandfather -- had multiple wives.
     Hey, Buddy-boy, want to discuss the much more recent history of polygamy in Obama's family? -- Like the fact that his own Muslim father had multiple wives, as did his grandfather and great-grandfather, back into time.
     Stupid. Just ... plain ... stupid.

- - - - -

So Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid thinks old people want and need junk mail as a morale-booster. Since Harry isn't exactly a youth (he's 72) perhaps he'd welcome all the junk mail people would like to send to his own mailbox. Furniture sales, mattress deals, drugstore offerings; he'd love 'em all.

Also ... one wonders what he thinks of his fellow Democrats' gratuitous attacks on his fellow Mormon, Mitt Romney.

- - - - -

From The Atlantic, hardly a conservative publication ...
     "President Obama could be in big trouble when it comes to the youth vote, according to a new poll. Less than half of 18-to-24-year-old voters want Obama to win reelection."

- - - - -

Dr. Milton Wolf, radiologist and cousin (really) of Barack Obama, offers this in the Washington Times ...
     "Liberals are a curious breed. They actually believe the government can mandate you into prosperity. They wave a magic wand, and the universe bends to their whim. At the end of each day, they rest their weary heads blissfully - willfully - unaware of the damage they cause.
     "Witness Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Before she was wielding the iron fist of power granted to her by Obamacare, she was the Kansas’ governor and, before that, the Kansas insurance commissioner. Health insurance mandates were her stock in trade, and with each new government dictate, Kansans saw their premiums increase.
     "The net result? Mrs. Sebelius chased nearly a dozen health insurance companies out of the state, leaving behind 40,000 Kansans who no longer had health insurance. That President Obama would choose her to head HHS and implement Obamacare is telling and terrifying.

- - - - -

Reader Greg offers this pungent bumper-sticker ...
     "WHO CARES WHERE OBAMA WAS BORN...
       THE PROBLEM IS WHERE HE LIVES"

- - - - -

Obama's campaign to encourage support from black Americans turns Dr. Martin Luther King's admonition to "judge a person by the content of his character, not the color of his skin" upside down, doesn't it?

- - - - -  

It was as predictable as sunrise. Fox-Chicago reports on a crime in suburban Maywood ...
     "Alton L. Hayes III told police he was so upset about the Trayvon Martin case in Florida that he beat up a white man early Tuesday.
     "Hayes and a 15-year-old Chicago boy walked up behind the 19-year-old man victim and pinned his arms to his side, police said. Hayes, 18, then picked up a large tree branch, pointed it at the man and said, 'Empty your pockets, white boy.'
     "The two allegedly rifled through the victim’s pockets, then threw him to the ground and punched him 'numerous times' in the head and back before running away, police said. Hayes and the boy are black; the victim is white.

- - - - -

Jobs for Americans?  According to New York Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop and North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones, the Obama administration is spending American tax dollars on a training program in the Philippines to train workers there in English so they can take jobs in call-centers dealing with U.S. customers.

- - - - -

It never stops. A Muslim mob has burned a Catholic church in Khartoum, Sudan.

- - - - -

Am I alone in suspecting that the stock market is largely operating on the ancient "greater fool" theory? The theory that, "Even if I'm foolishly overpaying for a stock today, tomorrow an even greater fool will pay me even more for it."

- - - - -

I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH YOU AN ITEM CALLED TO MY ATTENTION BY DAN SORKIN.
 
On Saturday, July 24th, 2010 the town of Prescott Valley , AZ, hosted a Freedom Rally. Quang Nguyen was asked to speak on his experience of coming to America and what it means. He spoke the following in dedication to all Vietnam Veterans.
      "35 years ago, if you were to tell me that I am going to stand up here speaking to a couple thousand patriots, in English, I'd laugh at you. Man, every morning I wake up thanking God for putting me and my family in the greatest country on earth.
     "I was asked to speak to you about my experience as a first generation Vietnamese-American, but I'd rather speak to you as an American.
     "I am a proud US citizen and here is my proof. It took me 8 years to get it, waiting in endless lines, but I got it, and I am very proud of it.
     "I still remember the images of the Tet offensive in 1968, I was six years old. Now you might want to question how a 6-year-old boy could remember anything. Trust me, those images can never be erased. I can't even imagine what it was like for young American soldiers, 10,000 miles away from home, fighting on my behalf.
     "35 years ago, I left South Vietnam for political asylum. The war had ended. At the age of 13, I left with the understanding that I may or may not ever get to see my siblings or parents again. Somehow, my family and I were reunited 5 months later, amazingly, in California . It was a miracle from God.
      "If you haven't heard lately that this is the greatest country on earth, I am telling you that right now. It was the freedom and the opportunities presented to me that put me here with all of you tonight. I also remember the barriers that I had to overcome every step of the way. My high school counselor told me that I cannot make it to college due to my poor communication skills. I proved him wrong. I finished college.
      "This person standing tonight in front of you could not exist under a socialist/communist environment. By the way, if you think socialism is the way to go, I am sure many people here will chip in to get you a one-way ticket out of here. And if you didn't know, the only difference between socialism and communism is an AK-47 aimed at your head.
     "In 1982, I stood with a thousand new immigrants, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and listening to the National Anthem for the first time as an American. To this day, I can't remember anything sweeter and more patriotic than that moment in my life.
     "I finished high school, finished college, and like any other goofball 21 year old kid, I was having a great time with my life. I had a nice job and a nice apartment in Southern California . In some way and somehow, I had forgotten how I got here and why I was here.
     "One day I was at a gas station, I saw a veteran pumping gas on the other side of the island. I don't know what made me do it, but I walked over and asked if he had served in Vietnam . He smiled and said yes. I shook and held his hand. The grown man began to well up. This was a profound moment in my life. I knew something had to change in my life. It was time for me to learn how to be a good citizen. It was time for me to give back.
     "You see, America is not just a place on the map, it isn't just a physical location. It is an ideal, a concept.  This is about Freedom, not free stuff.
      "Brothers and sisters, to be a real American, the very least you must do is to learn English and understand it well. In my humble opinion, you cannot be a faithful patriotic citizen if you can't speak the language of the country you live in. It took me a long time to get to the point of being able to converse and until this day, I still struggle to come up with the right words. It's not easy, but if it's too easy, it's not worth doing.
     "Before I knew this 46-page document (the Constitution) , I learned of the 500,000 Americans who fought for this little boy. I learned of the 58,000 names inscribed on the black wall at the Vietnam Memorial. You are my heroes. You are my founders.
     "At this time, I would like to ask all the Vietnam veterans to please stand. I thank you for my life. I thank you for your sacrifices, and I thank you for giving me the freedom and liberty I have today. I now ask all veterans, firefighters, and police officers, to please stand. On behalf of all first generation immigrants, I thank you for your services and may God bless you all."
 
Quang Nguyen
Creative Director/Founder
Caddis Advertising, LLC
"God Bless America "
"One Flag, One Language, One Nation Under God"
 
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

- - - - -

Jim Eason contributes more media mangling of the language ...
      "Heard for the third time this week: The word is INTERIM (IN-ter-im) ... NOT INTERM."

- - - - -

I recently asked an acquaintance what kind of gasoline mileage he was getting from his new car. His response was a perfect example of imprecision. He said he drove to work three days on a "tankful."  Say what?!
     Gasoline tanks come in many sizes, so that answer is no answer at all. It seems absurd, but there are people who have never mastered the simple formula for determining REAL gas mileage; i.e., fill the tank and note the mileage on the odometer ... drive until it's below half-full ... fill up again and divide the number of gallons (including tenths) into the miles accumulated since the previous fill-up.
     Once you have a fix on your gasoline mileage for city driving, highway driving and a mix of the two, you can stop depending on the often-unreliable gauges and know it's time to look for a gas pump when you've reached a certain number of miles.
     Similarly, the tachometer is useful for determining your best speed for mileage or a combination of trip-time and mileage. My own modest vehicle delivers best performance and reasonable highway speed at 2200 RPM, which equates to 68MPH. It'll go faster, of course, but gas mileage begins to decline above 70. (In Arizona, where I live, the speed limit on the Interstates is 75.)

Also ... don't drink and drive. You'll spill too much.

- - - - -  

Record-rate recidivism ...
     Marcus Hunt of Tampa, Florida, didn't take long to return to a life of crime. Sixteen minutes after he was let out of jail, he slugged a man and stole his bicycle.
     He's now back in the Graybar Hotel.

- - - - -

My friend O.V. presents a plethora of punishing puns ...
     I changed my iPod's name to Titanic. It's now syncing.
     Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.
     How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.
     This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore.
     I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. I just can't put it down.
     What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.
     Venison for dinner again? Oh deer!

- - - - -

Frances reminds us of an essential role in parenting ...
     A teenage boy had just passed his driving test and inquired of his father as to when they could discuss his use of the car.
     His father said he'd make a deal with his son: 'You bring your grades up from a C to a B average, study your Bible a little, and get your hair cut. Then we'll talk about the car.'
     The boy thought about that for a moment, decided he'd settle for the offer, and they agreed on it. After about six weeks his father said, 'Son, you've brought your grades up and I've observed that you have been studying your Bible, but I'm disappointed you haven't had your hair cut.
     The boy said, 'You know, Dad, I've been thinking about that, and I've noticed in my studies of the Bible that Samson had long hair, John the Baptist had long hair, Moses had long hair...and there's even strong evidence that Jesus had long hair.'
     Dad's reply: "Did you also notice they all walked everywhere they went?"


April 23 --

DIRTBAGS WORSHIPPING DIRT ...
SLUTS SULLYING SECRET SERVICE ...
DREAMS OF MY (friend's) FATHER

First ...
   Congratulations on surviving the usual media barrage of Earth Day bull(bleep), the pagan holiday contrived by leftists to create another excuse for big government know-it-all-ism.
    Perhaps you've noticed that this contrived event occurs on the birthday of Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union. Just coincidence, I'm sure ...

- - - - -

A minor but remarkable moment channel-surfing yesterday. A CNN anchor with an obviously insincere lament that Mitt Romney has little in common with the mythical "average American."
    Like Barack Obama, raised in Indonesia and born __?, DOES?

- - - - -

The National Enquirer, which established its credibility by ripping the lid off previous Democrat scandals which had been ignored by the Big Media, reveals another one ...
    "Political sources revealed to The ENQUIRER that Michelle Obama brain-stormed the scheme to sic a pit bull strategist on the GOP contender’s wife Ann Romney and it backfired!
    "Talking head Hilary Rosen set off a firestorm when she mocked Mitt Romney for relying on his wife for advice on the economy, sniping that Ann – who raised five sons, has battled breast cancer and suffers from multiple sclerosis – 'never worked a day in her life!'
    "The White House also caught heat when it was revealed Rosen had been a guest there 35 times – three times more often than Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
    “'Michelle thought Rosen, an out-of-the-closet lesbian and close pal, could be their attack dog, but she miscalculated badly by going after stay-at-home moms,' said the source."

- - - - -

    Columnist Mark Steyn observes that the Colombian hooker at the center of the Secret Service scandal commanded a rate of $800, whereas former New York Democrat Governor Eliot Spitzer's pet whore could be enlisted for $300 to perform her specialty, which suggests the Feds are, as usual, overpaying for services.
     Spitzer, of course, now consorts with the whores who run the television industry, presumably an easy transition.

- - - - -

    Secret Service agents are smart? History lesson: Since time immemorial, prostitutes have had no difficulty conveying the message that their services are on a pay-for-play basis, even across language barriers. Yet some of the agents in the latest scandal are trying to sell the story that their inability to speak Spanish led them to believe the Colombian ladies, working in a known brothel, hungered only for their ... companionship.

- - - - -

An open secret is confirmed. Thomas Lifson of The American Thinker finds that Google, which sits atop more data than anybody outside the NSA, is presenting Bill Ayers as the author of Barack Obama's purported first autobiography, "Dreams from My Father."
    So the company that supposedly knows more about us than we know ourselves also knows who wrote "Dreams from My Father."
    Ayers, of course, was a founder of the terrorist Weather Underground group of the 1960's and is a close friend of Obama.

- - - - -

What could be more revealing about Democrats' support for vote-fraud than their objections to requiring identification in order to vote?
    You have to have legal ID in order to board an airliner, drive a car, buy a six-pack of beer or a pack of cigarettes ... but NOT in order to vote? It's beyond absurd and reveals the core of the Democratic Party to be exactly what it is -- a bunch of unprincipled, power-mad crooks.

- - - - -

Unsurprising poll news ...
    The non-partisan Pew Research survey finds Republicans more knowledgeable on history and political issues, outscoring Democrats by an average of 18 percentage-points.

- - - - -

    The liberals' penchant for electing scum is further revealed in Robert Draper's book, “Do Not Ask What Good We Do,” full of revelations about members of the US House of Representatives.
    Take disgraced former Congressman Anthony (See My) Weiner of New York, who is revealed as a raving egomaniac, forever screaming at -- and abusing -- staff members to the point where many couldn't stand the SOB any more and quit.

- - - - -

To Democrats, who now regret they started the dog wars ...
    "Don't worry, Obama would never put a dog on top of his car, it dries out the meat."

- - - - -

Jeff Jacoby in the liberal Boston Globe (it belongs to the NY Times) ...
    "Unlike (Richard) Nixon, Obama didn’t wait until two weeks before his election to run on a platform of reconciliation. From the outset, his pledge to elevate the tone of the public dialogue, to defuse the anger and rancor that have made modern politics so toxic, was a central theme of his presidential campaign.
    "'I don’t want to pit red America against blue America,' Obama assured an enthusiastic Iowa audience in November 2007.
    "From urging Latino voters to “punish our enemies and . . . reward our friends” to snidely telling voters “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth” to rebuking the Cambridge police to bashing insurance and oil companies, Obama has repeatedly taken the low road. He has widened the fissures he promised to close, and lowered the political tone he promised to elevate. Americans who imagined in 2008 that they were voting for a healer-in-chief aren’t likely to make that mistake again."

- - - - -

    All you need to know about the "Occupy" movement: A bunch of leftist college professors from major institutions who support these creeps have been meeting in ... Tehran, Iran.

- - - - -

Reader Charleen responds to Obama's  "no silver spoon" remark and the race-motivated robbery and beating in suburban Chicago ...
    "Obama wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth.  He stole it from someone who earned it."
    "Empty your pockets, white boy."  Finally, an Obama campaign slogan that makes sense.

- - - - -

An update on business geniuses at work ...
    Six years ago Disney sold the profitable ABC Radio division to the cretinous creeps of Citadel Broadcasting, who sold it later to the even more wretched Cumulus Broadcasting. This was done in order to focus on movies and the amusement parks.
    The parks are now suffering because of the recession and last year's expensive Disney Movie, “Mars Needs Moms,” lost $70 million. This year, “John Carter,” a sci-fi action movie lost $200. And the head of the movie division just got fired.
    Brilliant move, Disney!

- - - - -

And now, the picking of nits ...
    Since geography is a largely forgotten subject in far too many schools, it is annoying to see the widespread ignorance of our own country compounded on TV.
    We have previously addressed such mangled misinformation as sportscasters' insistence upon locating Miami sports franchises in the non-existent city of "South Beach," ESPN being a prime offender.
    Then, yesterday Fox insisted on blurring the location of the Kansas race track where NASCAR was racing, already a point of confusion among many..
    The BIG Kansas City is in ... Missouri. The smaller Kansas City, Kansas, is home to the race track. The NFL Chiefs and baseball's Royals play on the Missouri side.
    And yes, I do realize that probably only Missourians and Kansans (and transplants from those states) care. There is, however, a fierce rivalry between the states that goes back to the Civil War.

By the way, I envy my nephew. Saturday he got a 190+ MPH ride around the track with five-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson. His adrenalin is still pumping.

- - - - -

Malevolent Mark submits a category entitled "Lets offend everybody!" ...
    Q. Where does an Irish family go on vacation?
    A. To a different bar.
    Q. What do you call it when an Italian has one arm shorter
than the other?
    A. A speech impediment.
    Q. Why do Driver Education classes in redneck
schools use the car only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays?
    A. Because on Tuesday and Thursday, the Sex Education
class uses it.
    Q. What's the difference between a southern zoo and
a northern zoo?
    A. The southern zoo has a description of the animals along with a recipe.

Mark, go to your room! 
April 24 --

OBAMA VS. HISTORY -- AND REALITY ...
ANOTHER "JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON" ATTACK ...
MESSAGE TO THIRD-PARTY FANTASISTS

Leftist stupidity on parade ...
     Obama insists that it was government "investment" that made America great.
     Rasmussen poll finds that an overwhelming majority of voters disagree.
     Yet Obamunists say it's Romney who's out-of-touch with most Americans?!

- - - - -

Irony department ...
     "The old, white, rich men who are buying this election." -- Old, rich Frank RICH, in New York Magazine.

- - - - -

    Predictable. People crazed by the Trayvon Martin case posting Twitter messages demanding that both George Zimmerman and the judge who granted him bail be murdered.

- - - - -

The beat(ing) goes on ...
     WKRG-TV reports that a mob of twenty blacks in Mobile beat a white man so badly he's in critical condition. A witness says as they left, one shouted, "That's justice for Trayvon."
     Any comment from the White House? I didn't think so ...

- - - - -

    Obama now campaigns on protecting -- and expanding -- the student-loan program. SENATOR Obama in 2007 couldn't be bothered to vote in support of the program when the bill was before the Senate. He was too busy out campaigning.

- - - - -

Michael Goodwin of the NY Post addresses the quadrennial phenomenon ...
     "They’re political locusts, noisy and bothersome as they emerge like clockwork from their hidey holes. We’re talking “third partiers,” and they find presidential elections irresistible, so brace yourself, America. You are about to be swarmed by those much holier than thou.
     "Their four-year life cycle means third partiers disappear between elections, but, as usual, they are now climbing onto their soapboxes to declare that neither major-party candidate is acceptable to their refined tastes. They alone are looking for the last, best leader of the free world.
    "The rest of us, on the other hand, are zombies being hoodwinked by Democrats and Republicans, so third partiers are here to save us from our stupid selves.
     "The noisy demand for other choices is a post-primary ritual, and the most predictable part is that the pols the elitists find acceptable all share one thing: They are unelectable."

It might be helpful for Republicans to remember that Ross Perot put Bill Clinton into the White House.

Among the favored third-party candidates (largely favored by Democrats who wanted to pick the Republican nominee): Jon Huntsman, who got about as many voters as you'd find in the mens' room at your local Greyhound station.

- - - - -

Terry offers this comment on the GSA (General Services Administration) party-spending scandal and general inefficiency ...
     "If the lease on our local Post Office is any example ...  This 3500 square ft. building is being leased by the the U.S. Post Office for about $8,000 per month.  As an FYI, any developer would build and lease this building to anyone for less than $4,000 per month.
      "Now, take that kind of waste and multiply it by every building the GSA leases."

- - - - -

    It appears that Wal-Mart, embroiled in allegations of bribery paid in Mexico to facilitate operations in that corrupt country, faces a dilemma encountered by many companies try to do business in such places; i.e., do you do business the same way as indigenous companies and pay off ... or simply abandon the country?
     The latter course would not only harm Wal-Mart but Mexico, as well, because Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the entire nation.

- - - - -

    The Pew Hispanic Center finds that Mexican immigration to the U.S. has come to a virtual halt. The reason has nothing to do with Obama border control, which is non-existent; instead, it has everything to do with Obama's failure on the economic front. Our economy is in such wretched shape that incentive to immigrate, even from poor countries, is diminished.

- - - - -

Doug Haggman in the Canada Free Press with a glimpse of what's in store for us -- U.S. -- if Obamunism continues ...
     "America and the world today is in chaos. Wars, rumors of wars, high gasoline prices, increasing food prices, growing divisions among races and between classes, current and impending financial collapses dominate the headlines. Critics and detractors of Barack Hussein Obama claim that it is a result of his failed policies that our house and much of the world is in such disarray. Investigation into the man known as Barack Hussein Obama II and the people behind him suggests otherwise.
     "The chaos that presently exists domestically and across the globe is destined to get worse, but it’s not due to Obama’s inexperience or failed policies. Rather, it is the direct result of the implementation of his successful policies. The chaos in which we find ourselves is exactly what has been planned for decades. Chaos is the tactic, the means to an end, and not the result of failure of policy by the man known as Barack Hussein Obama II."

- - - - -

    Count on it. In this November's election, we are going to see vote-fraud on a scale that will make the Kennedy campaign's vote-buy and voting by Chicago graveyard residents look like a children's game of patty-cake.

- - - - -

"I have to stop saying...'How stupid can you be?'...
People are starting to take it as a challenge."  -- Thanks, Mike

- - - - -

    The Weekly Standard carries word that former Palestinian intelligence official Muhammad Abu Shahala has reportedly been sentenced to death by the Palestinian Authority for selling a Hebron home to Jews. In response, Jewish officials from the community in Hebron are calling for international officials now to get involved—in order to save Abu Shahala’s life.

- - - - -

Blogger Jeff Dunetz shines the light on another piece of Obama two-faced hypocrisy ...
     "Only Barack Obama!  (Yesterday) the President tried to show he was a friend of the Jews with a beautifully crafted speech at the Holocaust Museum. Showing his words mean nothing, also (yesterday) Samantha Power began work as chair of  President Barack Obama's new Atrocities Prevention Board.
      If you don't remember Ms Power, she once called for a US force to invade Israel and force through a "peace settlement." Powers also had some unflattering things to say about about America's Jewish population during the 2008 campaign."

- - - - -

The TSA Airport Gestapo strikes again ...
     This time it happened in Wichita, Kansas. A four-year-old girl, screaming in fear, was searched because of suspicion by an officious TSA agent that she might be carrying a gun. She had committed the crime of giving her grandmother a goodbye hug.
     If Mitt wants another campaign issue, he might issue a statement saying, "Any such future idiocies will be punished not only by immediate firing but whatever legal charges -- assault, for example -- as may be applicable."
     Asking again: When was the last (or first ... or only) time you ever heard of this bunch of government thugs actually catching a genuine terrorist?  Yet we pay these leeches to harass us!

- - - - -

The minimum bid to have dinner at Warren Buffett's boyhood home was $6,000. How many bidders were there?
Zero. -- Wall Street Journal

- - - - -

If you don't buy into the retro argument that, "If you can't drive a stick-shift, you can't really drive," you might want to reconsider in light of repeated events such as this ...
     A couple of carjackers were stymied in Washington, D.C., because after scaring away the driver, they couldn't complete the theft because they couldn't drive a stick-shift.

- - - - -

    I'd completely forgotten this until a reader tipped me to the piece on WWV, the nation's time-signal shortwave station (20MHZ), on the Wikipedia website.
     Back in the early 1990's I recorded the voicing of the time for that station under a contract won by a Silicon Valley tech-firm. Apparently it's still being used.
     I also recorded an odd conglomeration of sounds that could be computer-assembled to create words for a reading device that enables blind people to simply pass a scanner over a printed page and have my voice read it to them. About six months after I did the studio sessions, the manager of the project called me at the ABC studios in San Francisco and gave me the odd experience of hearing my own voice reading that morning's San Jose Mercury News.
     At the same time I was doing these sessions, I also recorded the voice to be used for the automated countdown (" ... three ... two ... one") of intercontinental ballistic missile launches. Does that make me officially "The Voice of Doom?" (BOO!)

- - - - -

    People fed up with the liberal big-government mentality that pervades the U.S. often fantasize about emigrating to a more sensible Australia. They will be dismayed to learn the outcome when an Australian government employee on a convention trip was injured while copulating so energetically with another government worker in a hotel room that a light fixture fell and injured her.
     The government awarded her worker's compensation, agreeing that her injuries occurred while on government business.

- - - - -

Quoth columnist Cindy Adams ...
     SO this guy says: “I haven’t had sex in such a long time, I forgot which one gets tied up.”
April 25 --

REPUBLICAN RACE FINALLY OVER ...
OBAMA & FADING YOUTH ENTHUSIASM ...
DUPLICITOUS BUFFETT SELECTIVE TAX BREAKS

As expected, all the Republican primaries were a blowout for Romney.
     One might wish Newt Gingrich had had the good sense -- and good grace -- to get out of the Republican race weeks ago when it became evident he had no chance to win. At least he could have retained some influence on party policy as a sort of elder-statesman. Now he's become an embarrassing joke.
     There's no influence factor for Santorum; despite the fantasies of his admirers, he never had any.

- - - - -

    Does anybody really give a damn about somebody else's presidential endorsements? E.g., Santorum being unable to decide whether to "endorse" Romney. Perhaps his self-obsession leads him to believe that, if he does endorse the all-but-certain-nominee, he might trade it for the VP slot. Fat chance.

- - - - -

    It's hardly surprising that Obama -- who never voted for it as a Senator -- would want to buy the votes of young people with promises of more easy credit for college loans. Then the borrowed money goes for ever-higher tuition so that faculty members, largely besotted with leftist ideology, will get raises ... then tuition goes up ... then bigger loans will be required ... and on and on; the self-generating liberal cycle of life.
     But at least when these students graduate, they'll know what kind of work they're out of, if Obamunism prevails in November.

- - - - -

    Liberal phoniness just goes on. Ol' Warren Buffett, shill for Obama's "tax the rich" class warfare, has been paying lobbyists big bux to pressure Congress to grant tax breaks for corporate executives who lease private jets from his Netjets company, thus increasing their incentive to rent his flying palaces.

- - - - -

Dumb-de-dumb-dumb ...
     Your federal (Obama) government handed $100 million in loan guarantees and state/local governments coughed up close to another hundred mil in incentives and tax breaks for a company called Ener 1 to make batteries for electric cars and military equipment.
     That company has now been bought by a Russian businessman with close ties to the regime in Moscow. Just ... brilliant!

Time to repeat the mantra of the sane: "We live ... in a land ... run by MORONS!"

Further evidence to support that conclusion: An Obama hack declaring that "the war on terror is over." If it is -- we lost.

- - - - -

From Rasmussen Reports ...
     "Sixty-six percent (66%) of likely U.S. voters believe most government contracts are given to the company with the most political connections rather than the one that can provide the best service for the best price."

And the rest are stupid.

- - - - -

    New York Times left-wing political flibberty-gibbet Paul Krugman declares that Israel's policies are "narrow minded." Yes, it must be annoying for a  pro-Palestinian Jew that Israelis actually are unwilling to collaborate in their own destruction. Has no one ever told this pompous fool the sentiment behind "Never again?"

- - - - -

After time for consideration, Thomas Sowell (Townhall.com) weighs in on the Trayvon Martin case ...
     "Whatever the ultimate outcome of the case against George Zimmerman for his shooting of Trayvon Martin, what has happened already is enough to turn the stomach of anyone who believes in either truth or justice.
     "One of the first things presented in the media was a transcript of a conversation between George Zimmerman and a police dispatcher. The last line in most of the transcripts shown on TV was that of the police dispatcher telling Zimmerman not to continue following Trayvon Martin.
     "That became the basis of many media criticisms of Zimmerman for continuing to follow him. Only later did I see a transcript of that conversation on the Sean Hannity program that included Zimmerman's reply to the police dispatcher: 'O.K.'
     "That reply removed the only basis for assuming that Zimmerman did in fact continue to follow Trayvon Martin. At this point, neither I nor the people who assumed that he continued to follow the teenager have any basis in fact for believing that he did or didn't.
     "Why was that reply edited out by so many in the media? Because too many people in the media see their role as filtering and slanting the news to fit their own vision of the world."

Amazing how many blacks, including media types, identify George Zimmerman, the half-Latino shooter, as "white" but don't make the same distinction regarding Obama, who's half-white. Is it ignorance, or black bigotry?

- - - - -

Wisdom and disillusionment arrive late for some. From the NY Daily News ...
     "Jon Lovitz has a message for President Obama: No we can't!
     "The 'Saturday Night Live alum — and Democrat — skewered the commander-in-chief during a recorded comedy show, calling Obama a 'f---ing a-hole' and ripping his take on taxing the rich.
     "The whole thing with Obama saying the rich don't pay their taxes is f---ing bull----," Lovitz said on his podcast, 'The ABC's of SNL.'
     "Lovitz said he was particularly disheartened because he voted for Obama in 2008."

We liveth and we learneth ...

- - - - -

    My home state of Arizona is under attack in the Supreme Court by the Obama regime. To get to the root of the confrontation: Arizona tries to enforce the federal government's own immigration laws, which Obama WON'T do.
    Everything else is simple obfuscation by subversive Democrats who clearly want an open-borders policy. More illegal immigrants, more bought votes for Democrats -- especially if they can block any serious voter-ID program.

- - - - -

    The (liberal) Washington Post regularly runs a feature on the biggest lies told lately by politicians. It awards one or more "Pinocchios" for lies, depending upon the size of the whopper. Rarely it awards a Geppetto (Pinocchio's creator) for a pol telling the truth. Thus, the surprise in finding this in the Post regarding Obama's "Buffett plan". Writing of Mitt Romney ...
     "He gets a rare Geppetto for saying it would raise enough revenue to run the government for 11 hours."

- - - - -

    While Obamunists and other assorted sillies applaud the "green" movement for "preparing for the jobs of tomorrow," a lot more Americans are wondering where are the jobs of TODAY.

- - - - -

North Korea is now threatening to "turn South Korea into ashes within four minutes."
     Daily, history buttresses the argument that General MacArthur was correct and President Truman was foolish. The general wanted to finish off North Korea and stop China -- with nukes, if necessary -- when we had them and China didn't, during the Korean War. Truman stopped him from doing it.
     It takes little imagination to see how much better off the world would be today if MacArthur HAD finished the job. No more North Korea, and no China bullying its neighbors and hacking into our military's data systems while issuing veiled threats to us.

- - - - -

Don't say you weren't warned. Eric Peters, automotive expert, sounds the alarm at The American Spectator website ...
     "'Moving Ahead For Progress in the 21st Century Act,' also known as Senate Bill 1813. This legislation -- already passed by the Senate and likely to be passed by the House -- will impose a legal requirement that all new cars made beginning with the 2015 models be fitted with so-called Event Data Recorders (EDRs.
     "EDRs tied into your car's GPS will give them -- the government and/or corporations -- literal physical control over 'your' vehicle. This is not conspiracy theorizing. It is technological fact. Current GM vehicles equipped with the same technology about to be mandated for every vehicle can be disabled remotely. Just turned off."

Are there really people stupid and naive enough to believe that this power WON'T be abused?

- - - - -

Some Secret Service history from Jim Eason ...
     " I remember, back in 1964-1968, raising hell about the Secret Service in Dallas, in November, 1963. They drank, partied, and stayed up late the night before Dealy Plaza happened. There have been other SS goofs, including allowing nutcases to get into a dinner in the White House.    
     "Years ago, some minor candidate - a woman - running for President was in the GM's office waiting to go on my show.  When I came to get her, an agent stepped in front of the door and asked, 'May I help you?'  I was a bit testy, and replied, 'I'm here to get my guest for my show.' The agent handed me a small pin (which they were all wearing), and said 'You'd better wear this so we know who you are.
     "I said, 'You wear it, these people KNOW who I am.'  Frown, frown, whispers into his wrist."

- - - - -

A sign of the times ...
     The ever-more lib-slanted Associated Press, in a story about the Colombian prostitutes who bedded Secret Service agents, referred to the whores as "sex workers."
     Predictable next steps: Unionized hookers with privileged "minority" status.

- - - - -

    Marion Barry, ex-mayor of D.C., now member of the City Council ... doper and racist ... just a few weeks ago proposed driving Asian businesses out of the nation's capitol. Now he's attacking Filipina nurses; says those"lucrative" jobs should go to blacks.
     Since he just won the Democratic primary for his Council post -- again -- it's clear that his popularity among D.C. blacks continues unabated. Among many black voters, blatant racism is obviously no problem. Of course, telling the truth about it is totally un-PC.

- - - - -

More language-mangling ...
     Heard/read often: references to Paris as "The City of LightS."
     Wrong.
      It's "The City of LIGHT," originating as a description of Paris as the center of learning during the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries.
     You want LIGHTS, you go to Vegas.

- - - - -

Conan O'Brien --
     "Congress is expanding its probe into the Secret Service scandal. Congressmen want to know how this could happen, who was responsible, and do those ladies take Discover cards."

- - - - -

Sheila H. has shorthand tips for seniors in this hi-tech age ...
     Kids use short-cut texting codes (e.g., LOL, BFF, etc.). Now seniors can have their own texting codes.
     · ATD - At the Doctor's
     · BFF - Best Friends Funeral
     · DWI- Driving While Incontinent
     · FYI- Found Your Insulin
     · IMHO- Is My Hearing-Aid On?
     · LOL- Living on Lipitor

- - - - -

    A moment of silent prayer, please, for Zachary McKee. Mr. McKee exercised seriously flawed judgment by going wee-wee on the electrified third rail of Chicago's elevated transit system. He was 27. And dumb.

- - - - -

Jay Leno --
     "Lakers star Ron Artest — Metta World Peace, that's his name now — was ejected from a game for a vicious elbow to the head of Oklahoma's James Harden. It was such a cheap shot he was offered a contract with the New Orleans Saints."
April 26 --

POLL-CATS, PERUSE THIS ...
SPEAK NO ILL OF THE DEAR LEADER ...
ROMNEY AS AN "EXTREME RIGHT WINGER?"


    As we've noted before in this space, the most important of the many polls that'll be coming out over the next six months are those that ask the simple question, "Is or is not the country going in the right direction; on the right track?" A predominantly negative response is one of the more reliable signs that an incumbent is in serious trouble. And the negative response these days is overwhelming.
 
- - - - -

    The Marine Corps said it has decided to discharge a sergeant for criticizing President Barack Obama on Facebook. The Corps said Sgt. Gary Stein will be given an other-than-honorable discharge after serving nearly 10 years in the Marine Corps. The discharge will mean he loses all benefits.

    Students of history may be uncomfortable recalling that Adolf Hitler required an oath of loyalty to him, personally, by all German Wehrmacht officers and soldiers, as well as civil servants, during his rise to power. Loyalty to the constitution was not enough -- the leader was the priority.
     I am not comparing Obama to Hitler, just making reference to a factual historical footnote. And yes, I do take note of the U.S. chain-of-command, even with an anti-military know-nothing unfortunately at the top of that chain.

- - - - -

No Surprise Department ...
     An Obama appointee to the depraved EPA admits that he told the staff of that misbegotten agency that his goal was to "crucify" oil companies.
     Just in case you wonder why it costs so much to fill your tank.
     Anyone who complains about gasolines prices but voted for Obama is stupid beyond redemption, because they are getting exactly what they supported at the polling place. They had clear warning and chose to ignore it in favor of childish fantasies. You know ... like "Yes We Can" and "We are the ones we have waited for."
     Merely remembering that millions were taken in by such sophomoric nonsense should make a sane person cringe.

- - - - -

Big Government, the important website founded by the late Andrew Breitbart, lays out the latest piece of stupidity by Obama ...
     "Alaska contains a wealth of oil both on land, in ANWR, and off shore in its outer continental shelf. But President Obama and the Democrat party are staunchly opposed to allowing us to avail ourselves of it.
     "As a result, the price we’re paying per-gallon for gasoline is steadily climbing, and other countries are choosing to go where we won’t for oil. Thus ... oil up near the Arctic will be going to Russia. And the company Russia has hired to do the extraction is none other than Exxon Mobil.
     "The largest oil company in America is going to be drilling in waters around the Arctic where they expect to find 85 billion barrels in recoverable oil ... (which) will be sent to Russia. By the way, 85 billion barrels of oil would last for 85,000 days.  85,000 days equals well over 200 years.  Yet here we are, listening to Obama telling us the future is one of wind farms, electric cars, and a companies like Solyndra."

- - - - -

    If, as political insider rumor has it, Bill Clinton is counseling Obama that his best hope is to try to paint quintessential moderate Mitt Romney as an extreme right-winger, a cynic might consider the possibility that ol' Billy Jeff is covertly trying to evict the incumbent president, the better to make Hillary a viable candidate in 2016 if Romney fails to bring the country out of the doldrums.
     It's the least the Hillbilly Whorehopper could do to repay his wife for years of tolerating his consorting with sluts.

- - - - -

    The TSA airport goon-squad has done it again. Our domestic Gestapo mistreated a seven-year-old mentally handicapped girl with cerebral palsy at JFK Airport in New York. Her father, a pediatrician, videotaped the "security search" which caused the family to miss their flight to Florida.
     If Mitt Romney wants to quickly improve is standing with the traveling public, he should make a brief statement that, under a Romney presidency, such idiocy by government flunkies will be not only halted, but punishment meted out.

- - - - -

The LA Times has more on your friendly airport Gestapo at work ...
     "Four current and former Transportation Security Administration screeners have been arrested and face charges of taking bribes and looking the other way while suitcases filled with cocaine, methamphetamine or marijuana passed through X-ray machines at Los Angeles International Airport, federal authorities announced Wednesday.
     "The TSA screeners, who were arrested Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, allegedly received up to $2,400 in cash bribes in exchange for allowing large drug shipments to pass through checkpoints in what the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles called a 'significant breakdown' of security."
... and ...
     On the TSA agents' body search of a sobbing four-year-old who committed the offense of giving her grandmother a hug at JFK airport ...
     "TSA has reviewed the incident and determined that our officers followed proper screening procedures in conducting a modified pat-down on the child," the agency said.

With bosses like this, no wonder this wretched agency is populated by a bunch of bullying goons. It should be put out of business and everyone associated with it fired -- yesterday.

- - - - -

Jay Leno --
     "It now appears that as many as a dozen members of the Secret Service were involved in that Colombian prostitution scandal. Now six of the agents have been reassigned. The other six are now party planners for the GSA."

- - - - -

Point to ponder. Would you allow a demonstrably incompetent nincompoop like Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to balance your checkbook?
     And to think: Timmy Geithner, the tax-dodging joke who is Obama's Secretary of the Treasury, was once head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the biggest entity in the cartel that controls our money.
     With dung-brained morons like these heading the two institutions most responsible for our financial lives, it's no wonder the economy is in the toilet and the dollar becomes worth less with every passing day.

- - - - -

Charles Hurt of the Washington Times looks for a silver lining in our economic nightmare...
     "Well, that’s one way to stem the tide of illegal aliens streaming across the border from Mexico.
     "Jack up unemployment rates to near double digits, dunk America into a double-dip recession and put us so deeply into hock with the Chinese communists that it will take generations for us to recover.
     "After long enough, living and working and trying to eke out bare survival in America becomes even worse than trying to get by in Mexico."
     "A new study from the highly esteemed Pew Hispanic Center says the millions of Mexicans who risked their lives crossing the desert to get here to the promised land for a better life have given up on the U.S."

- - - - -

Being a simple country lad at heart, I must ask if someone will please explain to me how it is a president who's wrecked the economy, driven us hopelessly into debt, undermined our defense structure, betrayed our friends and knelt before our enemies can possibly be regarded as "cool" or "likeable."

- - - - -

Reader Jerrold contemplates an updated concept of infinity ...
      "If an infinite number of monkeys typed on an infinite number of typewriters (computers) they would produce the Obama birth certificate."

- - - - -

Wonder if NBC's Jimmy Fallon has chapped lips after spending an evening with them glued to Obama's buttocks?

- - - - -

A highlight from the trial of former Senator and Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards ...
     "'He said that she was ‘a crazy slut,’ and it was a ‘one-in-three chance’ that it was his child,' testified former aide Andrew Young, who had to break the news to Edwards because Hunter couldn’t get in touch with him." -- NY Post.

And to think: there were actually Democrats who wanted this slimy ambulance-chaser to be president.

- - - - -

Sad news from the business world ...
     An electric-car company in China called BYD reports a 90% drop in quarterly profits. Warren Buffett is heavily invested in BYD.
     Let us weep together.

BTW ... paid your long-overdue tax bill yet, Warren?

- - - - -

Tilting at windmills, Don Quixote-style, once again ...
     It is never "AN historic" this-or-that, it's "A historic."

- - - - -

In Scotland there is a town named Dull. Dull has asked for a sister-city relationship with a town in Oregon. Its name is ... Boring.

- - - - -

    It's a growing concern. Alcohol poisoning among teenagers drinking hand-sanitizer to get high. What ever happened to the fine old tradition of giving a street-bum wino a can of beer in exchange for buying a six-pack for teens seeking booze illegally?

- - - - -

Jimmy Kimmel --
     "For the record, I'm very much against global warming. But I'm also very much against doing anything about it."
 
- - - - -

A tale of domestic bliss from Mike ...
     A woman asks her husband at breakfast time, "Would you like some bacon and eggs, a slice of toast, and maybe some grapefruit juice and coffee?"
     He declines.  "Thanks for asking, but I'm not hungry right now.  It's this Viagra," he says.  "It's really taken the edge off my appetite."
     At lunchtime, she asked him if he would like something.  "How about a bowl of soup, homemade muffins or a cheese sandwich?"
     He declines. "The Viagra," he says, "really trashes my desire for food."
     Come dinnertime, she asks if he wants anything to eat.  "Would you like a juicy rib eye steak and some scrumptious apple pie?  Or maybe a rotisserie chicken or tasty stir fry?"
     He declines again. "No," he says, "it's got to be the Viagra.  I'm still not hungry."
     "Well," she says, "Would you mind letting me up?  I'm starving."

April 27 --

CRUCIFIXION AS ENERGY POLICY ...
BIDEN BABBLES B.S. -- AS USUAL ...
OBAMA'S OWN "SILVER SPOON"

    Make no mistake: The EPA official who apologized for saying that his goal was to "crucify" an oil company to scare the others into compliance with whatever cockamamie rules his misbegotten bureaucracy could dream up ... is sorry ONLY that his words became public.
     This little bureaucrat Hitler provides a clear example of why this entire department should be shut down and all involved fired. Immediately.
     And the fact that an idiot with this kind of mentality should be hired for such a position tells us what Obama really thinks of fellow countrymen -- if we ARE his fellow countrymen -- even as he sheds crocodile tears over the burden he has placed upon them whenever they visit the gas pump.

- - - - -

    Clearly suffering from yet another episode of hoof-in-mouth disease, Biden the Boob unloosed the opinion that Mitt Romney “fundamentally misunderstands” the role of the president. FUNDAMENTALLY?? Who does this clown think he is -- Newt Gingrich??
     The very idea that a spokesparrot for a president with no record of accomplishment as a U.S. Senator or state legislator -- or anything else -- would dare question the qualifications of a man who's been a governor, successfully ran an Olympic event and achieved enormous success in business is beyond absurd. What has the imposter from Illinois/Hawaii/Indonesia/Kenya (?) ever accomplished other than conning a bunch of foolish sheeple into buying a fantasy future?

- - - - -

Quote of the day ...
     "I promise you, the president has a big stick." -- Joe Biden.
     But wasn't it Bill Clinton who first made that boast?

- - - - -

    Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner has scheduled a vote for today in support of continuing artificially low interest rates for student loans. Obama plans to take the money for this purpose from health care.
     If Boehner thinks this will drain the votes from silly, naive students, he is living in a dream world.
     Another sign that he, along with Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have long outlived their usefulness.

- - - - -

Jonathan Karl of ABC-TV (!) reveals another slice of Obama phoniness ...
     "President Obama told students at the University of North Carolina Tuesday that he knows what it is like to struggle with student loan debt because he and his wife didn’t pay off their student loans until eight years ago.
    That may be true, but a quick look at the Obamas’ tax returns shows they were making enough to be considered “wealthy” by the president’s own definition in the years before his loans were paid off. Here's what the Obama's reported as income during those "hard years."
2004: $207,647
2003: $238,327
2002: $259,394
2001: $272,759
2000: $240,505

That should've been sufficient to buy a few "silver spoons."

This walking fraud in the White House perfectly exemplifies the time-honored test to determine if a politician is lying: "If his lips are moving, he's lying."

- - - - -

A couple of items from Rasmussen polling ...
     "Many Americans view the bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler more favorably these days, believing incorrectly that the government made money or broke even on them. But the view grows a lot more negative when the actual price tag is attached.
     "A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 20% of American Adults now believe the government made money on the billions in taxpayer dollars given to the two automakers to keep them afloat, while 19% more say the government broke even."
     Wrong! It's been a total money-losing proposition for taxpayers.
         ... and then we have this ...
     "Both President Obama and likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney are backing lower interest rates on some student loans, but nearly half of Americans nationwide believe the availability of student loans has driven up tuition costs for everyone. In fact, most Americans believe it’s better for students to work and attend school for a longer period of time rather than graduate in four years with loads of student debt."
     So 48% of Americans have figured out that easier loans lead to higher college costs ... leading to more loans, etc.  All of which, of course, a pretentious egghead president finds desirable.

- - - - -

More for the poll-cats ...
     Pew Research finds that while Americans have a generally favorable view of their local and state governments --61 percent and 52 percent, respectively -- only 33 percent like the federal government.

- - - - -

    Fortunately for the Dear Leader, a huge negative reaction from rural America has forced the Labor Department to withdraw one of the stupidest proposals ever promoted by this stumblebum, incompetent administration.
     Barack Obama, who never lived on a farm in his life, was pushing for legislation prohibiting farm kids from assisting in the work necessary to keep family farms going.
     Perhaps it was explained to this ignorant fool that farm children have ALWAYS helped out with chores and many forms of farm work.
     As a child, I personally lived that life. It's a good thing for youngsters. It teaches responsibility (e.g., the cows must be fed or there will be no milk) ... it teaches that the real source of food is not the supermarket ... it teaches a respect for animals. And pro-environmentalist that Obama claims to be, he should also be made aware that the farm life teaches concern for the land that comes in a very tangible way; misuse it, and you destroy the family's livelihood.
     Another detail of this misbegotten liberal fantasy: It would kill the 4-H Clubs and their invaluable work among rural youngsters, including concern for conservation.
     This is another clear example of the harm that can be done by a silly city-boy "community organizer" who has no experience in the real world he wants to control. He made a laughingstock of himself in rural America.    Perhaps he should show a pig his Harvard diploma, and notice just how impressed the animal is.

And to think: Democrats once scoffed at Bush Sr. for being unfamiliar with a new model of updated supermarket scanner, when their own pet snob's acquaintance with food sources comes from chowing down on a dog at his home in Indonesia.

- - - - -

Jeffrey Kuhner of the Washington Times looks into a grim future ...
     "France’s decay serves as a warning to America. For centuries, Paris was the cradle of Western civilization. The French, however, have hit hard times. Their country is dying, and most French citizens don’t seem to care. This threatens to be our fate as well.
     "France’s collapse is imminent. America likely will follow. Many of France’s problems - skyrocketing debt, high unemployment, a credit-rating downgrade, a vast and corrupt public sector, the loss of national identity, and nearly unlimited Third World immigration combined with militant multiculturalism - are shared by the United States. Going back to 1776, the destinies of America and France have been intertwined. Sadly, they are both in the twilight of their civilizations."

- - - - -

I am not making this up.
     Egyptian husbands will soon be legally allowed to have sex with their dead wives - for up to six hours after their death. The controversial new law is part of a raft of measures being introduced by the Islamist-dominated parliament. (That would be the Muslim Brotherhood, which Obama persists in telling us is "moderate.")

Sickest joke ever: Two necrophiliacs walking past the mortuary and one says, "Care to stop off for a cold one?"

In the name of all my ancestors, I beg your forgiveness ...

- - - - -

   When you see a leftist protest, which the Big Media are only too eager to give maximum exposure, you should know who's behind the event. We're indebted to the Washington Free Beacon for clarifying this example ...
     "The self-described “Catholic” group protesting Rep. Paul Ryan’s speech at Georgetown University Thursday has ties to the Obama administration and left-wing advocacy groups funded by liberal billionaire George Soros.
     "The protest, which aims to critique Ryan’s “attacks on the poor” and will feature a 50-foot banner reading “Were You There When They Crucified The Poor?” is part of a broader effort to portray the Republican budget as a fundamentally anti-Catholic document heading into the 2012 election season.
     "Catholics United, the group leading the protest, describes itself as a 'nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting the message of justice and the common good found at the heart of the Catholic Social Tradition.'
     "Judging from the organization funding Catholics United, however, the group’s partisan leanings are clear.
     "The Soros-funded Tides Foundation has given $65,000 to the organization since 2007, and has given nearly $200,000 to the affiliated group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good."

- - - - -

    The Daily Caller reports on another Great Leap Forward for hybrid cars. In Florida, Miami-Dade (the city and county have a joint government) did the politically correct thing and bought 298 new cars, mostly Priuses. They've now outlived their warranties with little or no miles on them. They were bought in 2006 with millions of taxpayer dollars -- and nobody at the agencies to which they were assigned wanted to use them.

- - - - -

The blatherings of a Marxist airhead on TV ...
     On leftist propaganda mill NBC, Today co-host Ann Curry declaiming on the subject of people being able to pay more money to get through airport security faster:
     "...there's an inherent unfairness to it....it's about those with money having an easier life than those who don't. And there's something fundamentally unfair about that."

Go ahead, Ann, say it. "To each according to his needs, " just like your spiritual godfather, Karl Marx, wrote it.

- - - - -

The media have increasingly become a playground for illiterates. Jim heard "grandeur" presented thusly on Fox News ...
     "...delusions of GRANDORE..."

- - - - -

Reader Barry offers hope ...
     A real woman is a man's best friend.
She will never stand him up and never let him down.
She will reassure him when he feels insecure and comfort him after a bad day.
She will inspire him to do things he never thought he could do; to live without fear and forget regret.
She will enable him to express his deepest emotions and give in to his most intimate desires.
She will make sure he always feels as though he's the most handsome man in the room and will enable him to be the most confident, sexy, seductive and invincible.
     No, wait. Sorry. I'm thinking of whiskey. It's whiskey that does all that stuff.
Never mind.

- - - - -

Conan O'Brien --
     "For the first time in 40 years, more Mexicans are leaving the United States than are coming to it. Not because of our economy. Because they're sick and tired of explaining that Taco Bell isn't real Mexican food."
April 28 --

VEEP PROSPECTS LIMITED ...
EPA'S FIXATION ON CRUCIFIXION ...
ISRAELI JEWS VS. U.S. JEWS ON OBAMA

Footnote to the NFL draft ...
     It's official. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has now been embraced by more black guys than any of the Kardashian sisters.

- - - - -

Only rarely can it be said that a vice-presidential choice determines the outcome of an election. Now that the Republican nomination is virtually settled, more attention will be given to the choice of a Romney running-mate.
     In an ideal world, the selection would be dictated by the answer to one question: "Who is best qualified to assume the presidency?"
     However, in the real world, the question is, "Who would likely bring vital votes in a close race?"
     That likely narrows the field abruptly to Senators Rob Portman of Ohio and Marco Rubio of Florida. Both states are essential to Republican success.
     So far as is known, Romney holds no ill will toward either man. Even if he did, political expediency would likely outweigh any other considerations. It might be recalled that John Kennedy despised Lyndon Johnson, but he needed the Texas votes that LBJ would -- and did -- bring to the election. Those votes, along with the expected votes from Mayor Daley's Chicago graveyards, were sufficient to elect Kennedy, a Senator with no record of accomplishment in that role.

- - - - -

Scott Rasmussen, the pollster, addresses the public's view of immigration and how it differs from that of most politicians ...
     "Voters don't believe the federal government has any interest in securing the border. In fact, most believe the policies of the federal government are designed to encourage illegal immigration. This offends voters who want to respect the rule of law. If immigration laws -- or any laws -- are routinely ignored, then the government loses credibility."
     "If the laws are enforced, 61 percent of voters favor a welcoming policy that lets anybody come to America except national security threats, criminals and those who would live off the U.S. welfare system. All who would like to work hard and pursue the American Dream are welcome."
     "The bottom line is that voters remember what many in Washington often forget: America is a nation of immigrants -- and of laws. The American people want both traditions to be honored."

- - - - -

     " "The Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They'd go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they'd find the first five guys they saw and they would crucify them. And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years." -- Al Armendariz, EPA official.
     "(This) confirms what many of us already knew about the Obama Administration: they imagine themselves to be the rulers of conquered territories populated by restless barbarians who must be subjugated at any cost, complete with indiscriminate and severe exemplary punishments." -- Oleg Atbashian in The American Thinker.
     He also points out Mr. Armendariz's ignorance of history. Turkey didn't exist at the time the Romans conquered Asia Minor. At the time, it was inhabited mostly by Greeks.  Romans could only conquer a Turkish village if they were to take a time machine ten centuries into the future

- - - - -

Jay Leno --
     "Have you been watching this John Edwards trial? I don't know what kind of president John Edwards would have been, but I'm pretty sure he would have gotten along really well with the Secret Service."

- - - - -   

As the trial of John Edwards continues, it is a reminder of just how gullible and stupid millions of Americans can be. My own reaction the first time I ever heard of this sleazeball was, "Can anyone possibly be taken in by this phony, pretentious fop ... an ambulance-chasing shyster who tells hillbilly jurors that he is actually the voice of dead babies?" -- which he did in one of the insurance-ripoff trials that paid for his Nawth Cahlina mansion.
     Millions did, of course; brain-dead Democrats who actually wanted him as their presidential candidate, and DID settle for him as the pompous John Kerry's running-mate.
     The whole sorry mess reminds one of the verity of H. L. Mencken's observation that "nobody ever went broke UNDER-estimating the American public."
     Which was underlined yet again by the election of our current Manchurian Candidate president.

- - - - -

Something else to make you proud to be a taxpayer ...
     Obama has just sent $192 million of your money to the Palestinian Authority.

- - - - -

    A new Smith Research poll sponsored by the Jerusalem Post shows that although perceptions of Obama in Israel have improved in the last year, most Israelis don’t consider him much of a friend. The survey showed that 36 percent of Israelis believe Obama is neutral in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians with 24 percent seeing him as pro-Palestinian and an equal number perceiving him as pro-Israel while 16 percent expressed no opinion. These numbers make one wonder what it is that the three quarters of Israelis who don’t see him as being in favor of their country know that the majority of American Jews who think he is pro-Israel haven’t figured out. -- (Source: Commentary)

- - - - -

Hottest video circulating on the internet: "If I wanted America to fail." Here's the link ...
     http://freemarketamerica.org
Watch it -- then forward it to a few hundred friends. They'll recognize their country being undermined by an anti-American president.

- - - - -

"When I go and stand up in front of the podium, in front of the White House press corps, I never lie. I never say something that I know is not true," said Obama's Press Secretary Jay Carney ... lying.

- - - - -

From an interview with "Did Muhammad Exist?" author Robert Spencer, conducted by Barry Rubin of PJ  Media ...
     RUBIN: How have the policies of Western governments actually pushed Muslim immigrants and their children into the arms of the radicals?
     SPENCER; I don’t believe this to be true. Muslim immigrants and their children do not hold to a sect or version of Islam that is significantly different from that which is preached elsewhere in the world. If they are informed and devoted to their religion, they generally view the actions of Western governments from the same perspective as do Muslims elsewhere. This perspective manifests itself in lists of grievances and expressions of anger, but Western governments are foolish in the extreme when they think they can redress these grievances and then all will be well; in fact, this grievance-mongering is intended to lay the groundwork for defensive jihad, which in Islamic law is incumbent upon all Muslims to undertake when a Muslim land is under attack. If one grievance is redressed, another one will take its place, because the point is not the grievances at all, but the jihad.

- - - - -

The London Daily Mail has more background on the Muslim proposal that Egypt permit a husband to have sex with his dead wife ...
     "The subject of a husband having sex with his dead wife arose in May 2011 when Moroccan cleric Zamzami Abdul Bari said marriage remains valid even after death.
     "He also said that women have the right to have sex with her dead husband."

The latter, of course, would call for further information on  just which body parts are subject to rigor mortis.

- - - - -

Mr. Eason has been watching our elected representatives in action on C-Span and has come to some depressing conclusions ...
     "The speakers are repetitive, boring, and are frequently WRONG, and provably wrong.  The same lines are delivered by several speakers, and just the opposite is delivered by the other side of the aisle. My head still aches.
     "It's a congress of dunces....I fear we are doomed."

- - - - -  

Reader Chuck reminds us of the timeless wisdom of H. L. Mencken ...
     "Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses. It is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."

- - - - -

More evidence that success as a player doesn't necessarily translate into success as a sports executive: Michael Jordan's Charlotte Bobcats have set an NBA record for futility with 23 straight losses.

- - - - -

Congratulations to Heidi Hankins. The British lady is a new member of Mensa with her 159 IQ -- just one point below Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
     Ms. Hankins is four years old.

- - - - -

Mark Steyn (Investors.com) declaims on the subject of polygamy and other nonsensical facets of the presidential campaign ...
     "Most polygamy in the developed world is nothing to do with Mormons: It's widely practiced by western Muslims, whose plural marriages are recognized de facto by French and Ontario welfare departments and de jure by Britain's pensions department.
     But "edgy" "transgressive" leftie comics on sad, pandering standup shows will reserve their polygamy jokes for Mormons until the last stern-faced elder in Utah keels over at the age of 112. In the United Kingdom, 57% of Pakistani Britons are married to their first cousins, with attendant increases in their children's congenital birth defects. But the comics save their inbreeding jokes for stump-toothed West Virginians enjoying a jigger of moonshine and a bunk-up with their sisters.
     "Likewise, the epidemic of black-on-black murder vs. the once-in-a-blue-moon Trayvon Martin: to the liberal mindset, certain dogs won't hunt.
     "'Mitt Romney isn't cool,' declared Brian Montopoli of CBS News this week in a story headlined "Can Mitt Romney Make Boring Sexy?" For economically beleaguered Americans, the more pertinent question is: "Can Barack Obama Make Cool Affordable"? It's not just that Obama ate the dog, but that he's screwing the pooch."

- - - - -

Conan O'Brien --
     "Burger King announced that all their chickens and pigs will all be raised cage free. In response, chickens and pigs said, 'That's cool. Now let's talk about the part where we get turned into sandwiches.'"

- - - - -

From Caroline, a North Carolina reader ...
      A tough looking group of motorcyclists was riding across  a bridge when they saw a young woman about  to jump off a bridge, so they stopped.
       The leader, a big burly man, gets off his bike and says,  "What are you doing?"
       "I'm going to commit suicide," she says.
      While he didn't want to appear insensitive, he didn't want to miss an opportunity either, so he asked,  "Before you jump, why don't you give me a kiss?"
       So she does... And it was a long, deep, lingering kiss.
       After she's finished, the biker says, "Wow! That was  the best kiss I've ever had! That's a real talent you are  wasting. You could be famous.  Why in the world would you want to commit suicide?"
       She says, "My parents don't like me dressing up like  a girl........".
April 29 --

POLITICS AS PARODY ...
HOW UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS LIE ...
FLYING FUNERAL FOR THE SPACE PROGRAM

It is a measure of how shallow and superficial the body politic has become that our media are actually discussing whether the "cool" factor should dictate our presidential choice. In a sane society, anyone who even raised such a phony issue would be an immediate laughingstock or assumed to be demented.
     Of course, such nonsense is hardly unexpected in a nation so mentally deficient that millions of young people think Jon Stewart and other comedians are actually delivering "news."

- - - - -

James Robbins of The Washington Times explains how the Obamunists cook the numbers on employment to tell you that what you know to be true ... is wrong ...
     "The credibility gap is widening between what the Obama administration says about the jobs picture and what Americans sense is the grim reality. Despite the official line that things are getting better, the employment situation is growing progressively worse.
     "You would never know this from the headlines. The Labor Department reported Thursday that initial unemployment claims for the previous week had fallen by 1,000. This was the sixth reported decline in the last eight weeks. The overall impression is that the situation is improving, slowly but surely.
     "Over that same period, however, the actual number of new jobless per week has increased by almost 40,000. The Obama administration is managing perceptions by revising the weekly numbers upward after the fact. Every week for at least the last eight weeks, the initial jobless number has been raised after it was released, sometimes significantly. So while the combined initial figures over that period show a 13,000 new jobless decline, this is only because 49,000 jobless were not included in the initial reports.
     "Revising upward after the fact allows the White House to generate favorable headlines even as joblessness increases. By shifting the previous week’s total above the new jobless number, it appears that claims are falling when they actually are increasing."

Of COURSE they're lying! You knew it all along, didn't you?

- - - - -

Obama's campaign is a reminder of the ancient jest, "Who are you going to believe? Me -- or your lying eyes?"

- - - - -

"What do you do at Fox?" -- Kim Kardashian to Roger Ailes at the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner last night. (Mr. Ailes is President of Fox News)

- - - - -
 
The disconnected (from reality) media seem to be treating the flyovers of Washington and New York by the space shuttle, piggy-backing on a 747, as some sort of celebratory triumph. How they can treat a ride to our last space vehicle's final resting place as a happy event is incredible.
     One of the great triumphs of American ingenuity and engineering is now history and the program that spawned this proud achievement has dwindled to insignificance.
     We have become the Indianapolis Colts of space exploration and if we fail to make a better "draft choice" in November, we're likely to remain in that sorry position.

- - - - -

Among pollster Scott Rasmussen's observations from last week's survey of public opinion ...
    Take the auto bailouts. They’ve been unpopular since day one, and they’re still unpopular. The majority of Americans nationwide still believes General Motors should have gone through the regular bankruptcy process instead of the federal government taking over in exchange for bailout money.
     For some, government is the answer to economic inequality in this country, but for most voters, it’s not. Only 22% believe society would become fairer if there was more government regulation.
     Americans believe that executives at most major companies are paid too much, but few think the government should regulate CEO compensation. However, there is an exception: Nearly half support continued government regulation of executive compensation at companies that were bailed out.
     The Obama administration is challenging Arizona’s crackdown on illegal immigration which is intended in part to make the government do its job. Yet most voters nationwide agree with the Arizona law’s most controversial provision, automatic immigration checks of those stopped by police for traffic violations.
     Just 23% of voters say increased government spending helps the economy.
     Most Americans believe it’s better for students to work and attend school for a longer period of time rather than graduate in four years with loads of student debt.

- - - - -

As the polls roll out from here to Election Day, always keep in mind that presidential candidates are elected on a state-by-state electoral vote basis. Win a state by one vote or a million, it matters not. The winner gets all the electoral votes of that state, with a couple of exceptions -- Maine and Nebraska -- which apportion them.

- - - - -

The Orange County Register gives voice to a serious demographer regarding the sickness of California ...
     "Joel Kotkin, an old-time liberal, sees troubling trends. 'Basically, if you don't own a piece of Facebook or Google, and you haven't robbed a bank and don't have rich parents, then your chances of being able to buy a house or raise a family in the Bay Area or in most of coastal California is pretty weak,' he said in a recent Wall Street Journal interview. 'The new regime wants to destroy the essential reason why people move to California in order to protect their own lifestyles.' He says the state is run for the benefit of the very rich, the very poor and public employees."

- - - - -

Eugene Rivers in the liberal Boston Globe takes on an aspect of the Trayvon Martin killing that most blacks avoid ...
     "What if Martin’s assailant had been black? What if this incident had been just another 'routine' Denzel-smoked-Rahim black-on-black homicide? How might black leadership’s response have been different?
     "Consider the facts: According to a US Department of Justice 2007 report, blacks, who are only 12 percent of the population, accounted for 49 percent of all homicide victims in 2005.
     "Even more astounding than the rates of violence is the race of the perpetrators: Blacks commit 93 percent of the murders of other blacks. These striking data reveal that not only is the black community under violent attack, but the onslaught is coming from within our own community."

- - - - -

Jim Eason caught another one; a media moron suggesting that some people should adopt an aspirin "regimenT."  The appropriate word, of course, is regimen. A regimen is a systematic plan for maintaining one's health. A regiment is a military unit.

Jim also contributes this ...
  My dog sleeps about 20 hours a day
  He has his food prepared for him; he can eat whenever he wants; and it's FREE.
  He visits his doctor once a year for a checkup, and anytime during the year if necessary.
  This, too, is FREE, and nothing is required of him.
  He lives - FREE - in a nice neighborhood in a house much larger than he needs, with his choice of luxurious places to sleep.
  He is not required to do any upkeep,
     and if he makes a mess, someone else cleans it up.
  He is living like a King, with no expenses whatever.
  All of his costs are paid by others who must EARN a living every day.
Suddenly it hit me:
     I think my dog is a member of Congress!

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Our dog Calvin undergoes surgery Wednesday for a torn ligament (ACL, which will sound familiar to football fans) in a rear leg. Meantime, he's effectively limited to limping around on three legs. He still finds comfort in using my ankle as a pillow when he sleeps. And so do I.

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I have been asked by some of the hundreds who've joined our regular cruises over the past fifteen-plus years to take a sampling of opinion about doing a cruise around Japan. They are typically ten to twelve days, sailing from either Tokyo or Kobe with prices starting at about $1,500, plus airfare.  Likely date would be late summer or early autumn. If there's any interest, e-mail me at RADIORODGERS1@YAHOO.COM.
     Susan lived in Japan for a year as a youngster and has some command of the language. Many Japanese, while taking for granted their own ability to learn other languages, are surprised when Westerners speak Japanese.
     While I've spent considerable time there, my own Japanese is pretty much limited to "Arigatou gozaimasu" (thank you) and "Ohayo" (good morning). Oh -- and sake.
     My bows in greeting are awkward, but obviously sincere.
      I also have a Japanese name that will be useful for when I eventually put on a couple of hundred additional pounds and pursue a career as a sumo wrestler. My friend Mrs. Onishi, who worked for an American executive at the Minolta camera offices in Nara, told me that many sumo take their names from prominent geographical features. Thus she teasingly awarded me the name Wakakusayama for Mt. Wakakusa, a small mountain in that beautiful city where tame deer stroll about, even obeying the traffic lights.
     I wear the name proudly when in Japan.
     The most beautiful modern city in Japan is Hiroshima. There is, however, no "old town." That disappeared suddenly in a certain event that took place in 1945.
     Once after being interviewed on local TV there, I asked the young lady reporter where she'd learned her English. "Fresno State," she proudly replied, "Go Bulldogs!"
     For many years my talk-show was occasionally punctuated by three young Japanese women chanting, "Uncle Lee kicks butt!" It was recorded at the very place where the A-bomb exploded and destroyed the city. Two of the three are city government employees, the third a comic book artist of some renown. Comics are very popular in Japan, even with adults. They all learned English in night classes taught by volunteer U.S. Marines from a nearby military base. They did, however, as one laughingly pointed out, "Teach us the dirty words first."

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Jay Leno --
     "The first case of mad cow disease since 2006 was discovered right here in the United States. The good news, since the cow is in California, instead of putting the cow down, they are going to enroll him in anger management classes."


April 30 --

THE FAILURE OF OBAMANOMICS ...
THE MONEY-HONEY'S LOST MAGIC ...
THE TOP DOG JOKES ABOUT EATING THEM

Question for greenies and Gore-heads: Is Solyndra hiring again yet?
And by the way ... whatever DID happen to Crazy Al? Is his little cable-TV station still on Channel 9,673?

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It is a sad fact that most Americans have little knowledge of or interest in events in other countries. Too bad, because even cursory attention would make clear that the collapsed economy of Greece and nations like Spain and Italy trembling on the brink of a similar fate share a common factor. Ever-more-lavish government "benefits" such as France's standard 35-hour work-week, the early government-funded retirement program in Greece and overly-generous government-employee pension plans everywhere ... all have exceeded the ability of the economy to sustain them.
     There is still no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody, sometime, has to pay for it.  And the price is painful. The longer it's delayed, the worse it is. Many individual states within the U.S., starting with California, are already looking into the abyss, even though the populace largely is either ignorant of the reality or chooses to ignore it. The nation as a whole is not far behind.
     One might be reminded of the stage and movie production, "Cabaret." The show was set in pre-War Berlin, as citizens tried desperately to amuse themselves and avert their eyes from the impending doom hovering over them.

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A notable item from a new book called "The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign" by Brendan J. Doherty, and coming out in July: Obama has held more fund-raising events than the previous FIVE presidents combined.

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Is there confusion in the Romney ranks? Why would a top advisor to Romney make the statement that the auto industry bailout was Romney's idea and was appropriated by Obama, when a Rasmussen poll just out concludes -- again -- that most American voters think the idea was stupid?

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The invaluable Victor Davis Hanson cuts thru the Big Media smokescreen and reviews the actual "accomplishments" of Obama and his economic team ...
     "Barack Obama’s original economic team — Austan Goolsbee, Christina Romer, Larry Summers, Peter Orszag — have long fled the administration, and have proved mostly wrong in all their therapies and prognostications of 2009. Despite the stimulus of borrowing over $5 trillion in less than four years, near-zero interest rates, and chronic deficits, the U.S. economy is in the weakest recovery since the Great Depression and mired in the longest streak of continuous unemployment of 8 percent or higher — 38 months — since the 1930s. The Mexican economy is growing more rapidly than is ours." -- (National Review Online)

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“What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? A pit bull is delicious.” – Obama, at the White House correspondents' dinner.

"Democrats would like you to stick to your guns. And if you don't have any guns, you can ask Eric Holder to get some for you." -- Emcee Jimmy Kimmel to Obama, same event.

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Once upon a time, Maria Bartiromo, the "Money Honey" of CNBC, was that cable network's star attraction. That was then and this is now and her ratings are seriously down. She's averaging a smaller audience nationwide than would be listening to a successful morning radio show in just one major market.

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I've never seen more than thirty seconds of one of those shows, but is my impression correct that all the "Real Housewives of ... " are a bunch of grasping, backbiting sluts?

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Would football fans be surprised if one of the college quarterbacks chosen later in the draft turns out in the long run to be a bigger star than Luck ... or RG3 ... or both?
     Consider today's hottest NFL QBs.  Aaron Rodgers was the 24th player chosen in his draft year ... Drew Brees slipped down to the second round ... and Tom Brady? He was picked in the 6th round, the 199th player chosen. Joe Montana, who played some pretty fair ball, went late in the 3rd round, the 82nd selection in that draft.

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Kyle Busch, the most widely-despised driver in NASCAR, has the best pure driving skills of anyone on the circuit today.

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Mike forwards this "rest of the story" biographical piece  ...
     Jesse hated this job. And you would too. Jesse was a chicken plucker. He stood on a line in a chicken factory and spent his days pulling the feathers off dead chickens.
     It wasn't much of a job. But at the time, Jesse didn't think he was much of a person. His father was a brute; actually thought to be mentally ill and treated Jesse roughly.
     Jesse's older brother wasn't much better, always picking on Jesse and beating him up.
     Yes, Jesse grew up in a very rough home in West Virginia. Life was anything but easy. In addition to all the rough treatment at home, Jesse was always sick. Sometimes it was real physical illness, but way too often it was all in his head. He was a small child, skinny and meek. When he started to school, he was the target of every bully on the playground.
     But he had dreams. He wanted to be a ventriloquist. He found books on ventriloquism. He practiced with sock puppets and saved his hard earned dollars until he could get a real ventriloquist's dummy.
     When he got old enough, he joined the military. And even though many of his hypochondriac symptoms persisted, the military did recognize his talents and put him in the entertainment corp. That was when his world changed. He gained confidence. He found that he had a talent for making people laugh,
     The history books are full of people who overcame a handicap to go on and make a success of themselves, but Jesse is one of the few who didn't overcome it. Instead he used his paranoia to make a fortune and become one of the best-loved characters of all time doing so.
     That little paranoid hypochondriac, who transferred his nervousness into a successful career, still holds the record for the most Emmy's given in a single category.
     He was the wonderful, gifted, talented, and nervous comedian who brought us Barney Fife.
     Jesse Don Knotts.

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Reader Norm catches some media biggies (and smallies) who pronounce the word PUNDIT as PUNDInT.
There is no second "n".

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It happened in Romania. The woman was riding as a passenger on a motorcycle. She was naked. A policeman stopped Easy Riders and gave her a ticket. For riding without a helmet. And let them go on their way, since they had broken no other laws.

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Sheila offers ads clipped from the local newspaper in a Florida retirement community ...
     "Sexy, fashion-conscious blue-haired beauty, 80's, slim, 5'4' (used to be 5'6'), searching for sharp-looking, sharp-dressing companion. Matching white shoes and belt a plus."
     "I am into solitude, long walks, sunrises, the ocean, yoga and meditation. If you are the silent type, let's get together, take our hearing aids out and enjoy quiet times."
     "BEATLES OR STONES? -- I still like to rock, still like to cruise in my Camaro on Saturday nights and still like to play the guitar. If you were a groovy chick, or are now a groovy hen, let's get together and listen to my eight-track tapes."
     "MINT CONDITION: Male, 1932 model , high mileage, good condition, some hair, many new parts including hip, knee, cornea, valves. Isn't in running condition, but walks well."  

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From the Henny Youngman era ...
     Two guys were discussing popular family trends on sex, marriage, and family values.
Bill said, 'I didn't sleep with my wife before we got married, did you?'
Larry replied, 'I'm not sure, what was her maiden name?'
Lee Rodgers"...and now, if you'll excuse me..."
radiorodgers1@yahoo.com